After the Fall
by YokoshimaMitsukai88
Summary: Loki would never had guessed he'd make an alliance with a woman who would turn out being worth more than just an ally. Takes place after Thor and before Avengers. Loki/OC.
1. Prologue: The Storm

Lightning illuminated the night sky, and a thunderous roar shook the ground in the small town of Austin, Nevada. The town had seen these strong storms before, but never had they lasted more than a few minutes. The rain was a never relenting torrential downpour. Most of the population was already inside at this time of night, they smart enough to know going out at this hour in the terrible weather wouldn't be the best of ideas. However, there was one among the few who did brave the outdoors…

"Nonono. You've got to be joking," Orthani Mynx yelled at her truck as the power died and it started rolling to a stop. "Oh come on, not now you piece of junk," she muttered as she turned the key once it came to a halt, attempting to get it started up again.

After making a horrible whining noise for more than a few seconds, she stopped and waited a minute before trying again. Same result.

_I'm 3 miles away from home, 3 miles! Three lousy stinking miles!_ She thought to herself as she growled audibly and rested her forehead on the steering wheel of the old Ford truck that was at least 20 years old. _It couldn't wait until I was at home to die on me? No! It just has to make me trudge through a storm just to get there. Fantastic._ She slammed her hand against the steering wheel and yanked the keys out of the ignition and sat there to see if the storm would at least let up enough for her to start making a run for cover. Even though she was out in the middle of nowhere, she figured there was probably an abandoned gas station somewhere down the road where she could hide out until the storm had passed.

It didn't. It only started raining harder, and the fact that there were no street lights made visibility made it that much worse. Orthani sighed and looked in the back seat. She hadn't even bothered bringing an umbrella with her since the town wasn't expecting the rain to hit until two days from now.

"I swear, if I get pneumonia and die, I hope you never get towed off so you can stay here and rust to the point you just break into a million pieces for absolutely no reason," she ranted to her truck as she grabbed her purse from the passenger seat and threw the strap across her shoulder. She grabbed her phone from the dash, even though the storm had knocked the phone lines out and had rendered it useless, and shoved it into her jeans pocket. She grabbed her long sleeve knit jacket and shoved her arms through it, knowing that going out into the rain with only her wife-beater like undershirt and a light weight short sleeve shirt would definitely get her sick.

Lightning struck again as she opened the door of her truck and stepped out into the pouring rain. She slammed the door shut and locked it, knowing that if she just left it there unlocked, someone could strip the thing down before she even made it back home. As she turned away from her vehicle she realized she hadn't even been out in the rain for a minute and she was already soaked. She jumped when thunder exploded over her head. _And now for the longest, coldest, and most terrible night of my life. Way to go, Orth. Way to go, _she thought to herself as she began walking down the unlit road ahead of her towards shelter.

The wind picked up the further she walked, making it hard to keep her footing against the slick asphalt of the road. The sound of the rain hitting the ground was almost as deafening as the thunder when it rolled through the clouds. Her only source of light was the split seconds of lightning illuminating the sky. Her brown, curly locks of hair clung to her face and to her back, and it was cold enough to make her start shivering slightly. She simply kept her head down and kept walking.

By the time she got to the second mile, the storm had leveled off some, and by level off meaning it remained at a stable downpour and a constant stream of thunder and lightning. She had set a steady pace until witnessed something no one ever wanted to see happen. A tree, not but a foot away from the road she was walking on was suddenly struck by lightning, causing her to jump and lose her footing. The noise that happened sounded like a bomb exploding in her ear as she hit the ground and the tree was literally dissolved into a stump and a good amount of woodchips went flying into the air.

She covered her head due to instinct and curled up in a ball in the middle of the road. She stayed there for a minute, letting her heart rate slow down back to its normal speed before she went to pick herself up.

Just as she put her two feet back on the ground and was about to stand, another noise behind her made her jump and swirl around to see what had startled her. She watched as something careened into the ground at top speed, causing the asphalt to actually crumble to due to the force of the impact. She screamed for a split second as she scuffled backwards a few feet, not knowing what the hell it was and how it could have fallen out of thin air. She stared at the spot where the road had depressed into the shape of whatever it was, and as her eyes recovered from the blinding lightning just a minute before, she began to see the outline of a person.

"Um…hello?" she called out over the rain, feeling stupid afterwards. People just don't fall from the sky and live to tell the tale. She slowly got to her feet and crept towards the person. "Are you dead? I didn't just witness a suicide, did I?" She started rambling. "Cause if I did, I sure don't have time to go to court if I call the cops, so if you're dead, I'm just going to leave you here…hello?"

She reached the person and knelt down, studying the face of someone she presumed to be dead. He was pale, very pale. He had black hair, slicked back and out of his face, and a gash adorned his cheek. He was wearing odd attire: black, green, and gold garb with a green cape.

_What on earth…?_ She thought as she rolled him over onto his back and put her hand to his neck to check for a pulse.

Suddenly, his eyes flew open and he gasped, grabbing her wrist in the process. She screamed and jumped back about a foot. She watched in horror as the man took a few desperate breaths of air as he stared up into the sky. The storm had suddenly grown calm, and the rain was falling slowly and less heavily than it had been before. He groaned as he slowly tried to sit up.

"You're alive after that?" Orthani screeched at him in fear. After a fall like that, she would expect there to be more carnage than this.

The man turned his head and just stared at her, studying her it seemed.

"Hello? Are you going to answer me? Do you need help, maybe? Do you need a hospital? Or a doctor? Our town doesn't really have a proper hospital-"

She was cut off. "Must you talk so much?" the man groaned, raising an eyebrow at her. She opened her mouth to answer, but then quickly shut it, dumbfounded for words. "I am on Earth, correct?" He spoke with a fluid British-sounding accent that shocked her. How a Brit landed out in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada was beyond her.

"Yeah, where else would you be, Narnia?" she sarcastically scoffed. He gave her a puzzled look. "Never mind. Do I need to try and call somebody? You just fell from god knows what height, you probably broke something-"

"No. I do not need to be seen by healers; I simply need a place to rest for me to recover properly." He clutched at his side, wincing in pain as he sat up.

She bit her lip. "Well, if you can somehow miraculously walk, we're about a mile out from my house. The storm's suddenly gone quiet, so it shouldn't be too bad trying to get there," she offered, going against everything her parents had taught her about letting in strangers. He seemed nice enough, and hey, he survived falling from the sky, so she doubted he was in any condition to harm her.

He nodded. "I shall follow, then." He slowly stood up with help from this strange woman to his right.

"What's your name, by the way?" she asked, curious as to who he was.

He hesitated. Should he risk compromising his location? "That is not important." _Not yet, at the moment. _"There shall come a time where that would be of use to you, but that time has not yet come." He winced as they walked down the road at a slow pace, she holding him up in order to support some of his weight to make it easier on him. "How is it you enlighten me to yours, seeing as though I shall be partaking of your hospitality?"

"If I tell you my name, you've got to tell me yours." She said firmly. "Otherwise, I drop you off at the town's doctor."

He pressed his lips into a thin line. She was intelligent, he had to admit. Intelligent enough to know that letting a stranger into her dwelling place without knowing that stranger's name. "Then you are wise to understand the value of information. Go on then."

"Orthani. Orthani Mynx. And you?"

He again, hesitated. "I am Loki."

* * *

Reviews=Motivation. Just saying. :D

I'm staying up late to write another chapter, so expect another within 24 hours.


	2. Chapter One: Reminiscing

"Here, sit," Orthani ordered Loki to sit down on her couch in the living room. The rain had finally stopped for the time being and though they were no longer soaked in water, their clothes were still rather damp. "I don't have any clothes for you, I'm afraid," she rushed down the hall to get him a blanket and a pillow.

"Oh, that won't be necessary," she heard Loki say from the living room.

"Are you sure?" she furrowed her brow in confusion and went back down the hallway to peek her head around the corner. She had to look twice, for she knew she thought her eyes were deceiving her. He was wearing normal clothes, and they were completely dry.

"What?" He looked at her with a blank expression while clutching at his side.

"How long have you been wearing that?" Orthani cocked her head to the side slightly.

"I have no idea as to what you are talking about," he said fluidly, without any hesitation.

She gave him another once over before going back to the closet she was once at. "I must be going crazy then," she muttered to herself. "I could've sworn you were wearing some sort of strange…armor…and a cape."

"Are you alright? You seem to be seeing things…" he trailed off, wincing as he sat back.

"I guess I am, if that's the case," she sighed, shrugging it off and walking back in with a blanket and a pillow. "You can stay here as long as you need, Loki. That was a nasty hit you took out there," she spoke as she unfolded the blanket. He leaned forward and she draped it over his shoulders.

"I must ask, why is it you're insuring I stay warm whilst you stand in front of me with wet clothing?" He looked up at her with questioning eyes.

"Well, what else is someone to do when they've just witnessed someone fall from the sky in the middle of a thunderstorm and walk away from it?" she said as she wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and brought the two corners together at his neck. "Give me two seconds. I'll be right back."

She hurried to her bedroom and closed the door, quickly changing out of her wet clothing and into dry ones. She opened the door to the master bathroom and wrung the excess water out of her hair as best she could.

Meanwhile, Loki remained in the living room, thinking quietly to himself. He didn't know how long he had been falling for. The absent mindedly rubbed the side he had fallen on, knowing that the impact, while it hadn't done too much damage, did harm his side enough to leave a bruise. His apatite was gone, probably due to the endless travel through the bifrost that suddenly ended with a hard stop.

Before he could think too much further into it, he heard the sound of a door opening and footsteps down the hall. "Sorry about that, just changing into dry clothes. Now, if you want to sleep in the master bedroom instead of the couch, that could be arranged-"

"That won't be necessary. I find sleeping in the rooms of others to be slightly intrusive," he cut her off before she could get anything else out.

"Oh…alright then." She gave a confused smile. "Sleep well then. If you need me, my room's down that hallway, all the way back."

Loki nodded. "I thank you for your charity."

Orthani furrowed her brow. _No one ever speaks like that anymore._ "You're welcome. Goodnight then. See you in the morning," she said as she turned the lights off in the living room and sauntered off to her bedroom.

"Goodnight," Loki said under his breath and watched her walk away. He waited until he heard the door shut to take off his shoes and take the blanket off from around his shoulders. He cringed as he swung his legs onto the couch, and then slowly rested his head on the pillow placed on the arm of the couch. He let the blanket fall over him, and he simply stared at the ceiling until his mind went blank with sleep.

However, Orthani was a different story. Her mind kept whirring long after the lights went out. His green eyes seemed to haunt her. Who was he, where did he come from? Why was his speech so alluring and intelligent and…old fashioned? He seemed overly polite for a man of this century. And how did he just fall from literally nowhere and survive with only a few cuts and bruises? He had put a hole in the middle of an asphalt road, for crying out loud. How does one do that and simply walk away? And that clothes thing he did…

These were questions she couldn't find the answers to, or at least ones that couldn't be explained. He was strange, to say the least. Oddly alluring, but strange.

Needless to say, she didn't get much sleep that night.

Loki was up the moment the sun started shining through the living room window the next day. As he stood up and stared at the sun from the door leading to the small outdoor patio, in his mind, he was reliving what had happened in Asgard.

"_Am I cursed?__" He asked in awe as he watched his skin turn sapphire blue. __  
__"No,"__ Odin said simply.  
__Loki turned around to face his father after letting go of the Casket, "What am I?"__  
__"You are my son."__  
__"What more than that?... The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?"_

His eyes narrowed as he allowed the scene to run through his mind once again.

"_No. In the aftermath of the battle I went into the temple and I found a baby. Small for a Giant's offspring, abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son.__"_

The same familiar pain of being betrayed by his own father washed over him once again. He shut his eyes and shook his head, trying to shake it off.

"_You were knee-deep in Jotun blood. Why would you take me?__"His eyes were watering by now. __  
__"You were an innocent child."__  
__"No. You took me for a purpose. What was it?" He waited for an answer, yet his father remained silent. "... TELL ME!__"__  
__ "__I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day. Bring about an alliance, bring about permanent peace... through you."_

He had been used, raised as a bargaining tool between two races that would otherwise never live peacefully. He felt a snarl start to form on his lips.

"_So__I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?"  
_ _"__Why do you twist my words?"  
"You could have told me what I was from the beginning! Why didn't you?"  
__ "__You're my son... I wanted only to protect you from the truth...__"  
"__What, because I... I... I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?"  
"No, no..."  
"You know, it all makes sense now, why you favored Thor all these years, because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!"_

"Oh, Jesus, you scared me!" he heard a gasp behind him. He didn't so much as flinch at it. "How long have you been up?"

"Not long," he said quietly, opening his eyes again and staring out the windows in the door.

"How are you feeling?"

He raised his chin. "I have healed some. Though it will take time for a full recovery. I am still weak and need time to regain my strength." He spoke rather absent mindedly. His mind was still elsewhere, playing back the events which led him to this exact point.

Orthani nodded. "Are you hungry? I'm sure food will help you feel a bit better…" she trailed off as she went into the kitchen. "Any preference?"

"Fix what you wish."

She eyed him strangely. "Ooookaaaay." _He's different today…_ "I'll be leaving after breakfast to go and fix my truck. If you feel up to tagging along, you can," she offered, secretly hoping he would so she could get the chance to figure out what was actually going on.

"Of course. You can inform me about what this world has to offer in that time." He put his hands behind his back and held one of his wrists.

"You aren't from around here, are you?" Orthani guessed as she pulled a pan from the cupboard. "Who exactly are you?"

"In due time, Orthani," he exhaled, and finally turned his head in her direction. "You shall find out in due time."

* * *

She grabbed the keys to her truck and headed back down the hall, having changed from what she had slept in to a pair of fresh jeans and a light, long sleeved plaid button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and a white undershirt. She had put her hair up in a pony tail, knowing that since the clouds from last night's storm had vanished, it would be a hot and humid day.

"Alright, come on. Off we go. It's an hour's walk away from here. Let's get going," she said as Loki followed her out the front door. She turned to lock it and then set off down her driveway and headed towards the main road where she had abandoned her car. "Now, tell me who you are and where you've come from."

Loki smirked. "You seem overly curious for your kind, though I haven't actually been to Earth so I cannot say that as fact" he said as he followed behind her.

"See, that's what I mean. You're different. No one ever speaks like that now; you have this strange aura about you, so talk," she spoke, waving her hands as she talked.

His green eyes met hers and he searched them for any sign of deception that would tell him of any alternate reasons for her questions. She seemed trustworthy enough, regardless of the fact that after what had happened between him and his people had caused him to be extremely cautious. He wouldn't tell her all of it, he concluded. Not yet, anyways.

"It's a fairly long and complicated story," he sighed as he fell in time with her pace.

"Well, we've got the entire day," she pointed out, shoving her hands into her jean pockets.

He nodded slightly and looked down towards the ground. He silently shrouded the two, only incase Heimdall was attempting to find his location. He wanted his so called family to think he was dead, not alive and stuck in some other realm. He knew he would be hiding the entire time he was here as to not be vulnerable to anyone hunting him down in an attempt to return him back to Asgard.

"This will not be repeated to anyone by your tongue, understood?" he muttered quietly.

"Promise," Orthani nodded in understanding.

* * *

Thanks for the reviews! I didn't expect this many so early on, but it is greatly appreciated! =) Even the not so good one. Oh well. Constructive criticism. I'll take it, but I'm not changing anything and I have my reasons.

Since it is summer and I'm on a major Loki craze at the moment, I'll be writing stuff just about every day, so you can expect another chapter soon. As always, reviews are nice and lovely and I would love you forever if you leave me one. Now off to more writing!


	3. Chapter Two: Just a Little Mischief

"Aow!" Orthani yelped after she hit something underneath the hood of her truck with a hammer and it electrocuted her. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make her jump back quite a few feet in surprise. "Fucking hell, that hurt!" She dropped the hammer on the ground and shook her arm out. She kicked the front grill in frustration. "Loki, get out of the back of the truck," she barked an order to Loki.

"Sorry?" he asked, slightly confused as to why she was sniping at him.

"Unless you want to get a hammer to the back of the head, get out of the truck," she repeated herself.

Loki climbed down from the truck bed where he was sitting, waiting for her to fix her truck. _It wouldn't be the first time I've taken a hammer to the back of the head,_ he thought as his feet touched the ground. He dusted off his Asgardian armor, which he had made reappear, minus his helmet, whilst telling his tale to his new confidant in order to prove it'd been all truth. He was more comfortable in his Asgardian garb than in normal human clothing, so he was somewhat relieved to be able to adorn his kingly clothes than those terrible rags.

"So I can tell you've been a little off since you've told me that story of yours," she said as she went to pick up the hammer from the ground, "and I know how difficult that must've been, but do know that you've gained my loyalty from it."

"What is your point, Orthani?" Loki said with an emotionless face as he walked over to where she had been standing in front of the truck.

She slammed the hood down with a bit more force than was needed and backed up a good few feet. "My point is, I'm not the kind of person to cross someone. Now, you told me you were into magic, yes?" She looked at him with her head cocked to the side. He nodded. "Then here."

She took the hammer and threw it into the windshield of the truck, causing the glass to explode, shattering upon impact in the shape of a hole where it had made contact. Loki jumped, not expecting it from her.

"Target practice," she smirked. "Have at it. It's the best kind of anger management for the best price: free," she added, walking over and grabbing the hammer from the shattered glass.

_I do not need this management of anger, I need to kill this so called 'management' slowly and painfully,_ he thought, a ghost of a smirk quickly fading on and off his face at his own joke. He glanced over at her and realized she was being serious.

"Go on! Show me what you can do, o powerful sorcerer. I'm curious," she encouraged him. She backed away from the truck and waited for him to do something.

_This must be some sort of trickery,_ he said to himself. Yet, her eyes told him she wasn't trying to play him.

"You are aware you're destroying your only means of human transportation, yes?" He cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side.

"Nah. One phone call can fix that," she shrugged. "Now go on."

He studied her face carefully before obliging by swiftly turning in a smooth 360 and performing the same ice spikes spell he had used when he had gone to Jotunheim, which after they left his hands, proceeded to rip holes through the front grill like it was butter.

She gave him a wide grin. "That is beyond awesome," she said as she went to the back of the truck and fetched the rusty tool box and a crow bar that had been sitting back there for years. "Alright, time to finally kill this thing and send it to its grave," she took the crowbar and smashed one of the rear tail lights.

"Care to enlighten me as to your own past?" he asked as she smashed another light in.

"Not necessarily," she quickly answered, walking back to the front of the truck.

"Do not test my patience," he sneered, getting testier by the minute.

"Why not?" She laughed while destroying the headlight.

"You dare test a god whom has been banished for someone else's wrongdoing?" he snapped, the glare he gave her more than just a harsh look.

She stopped kidding around when she saw that look in his eye. "I-I didn't mean to set you off…" she stammered. "I was only trying to keep the mood somewhat cheery…"

"Being cheerful isn't exactly what I am capable of at the moment," Loki said flatly and with narrowed eyes.

"Oh…" she exhaled softly. She slowly turned back to her truck and then busted out the final light. "My mom and dad, they're pretty much in jail for the rest of their natural lives," she spoke, walking back to the truck bed and jumping up. "They murdered my younger half brother 5 years ago."

Loki gave a semi-sympathetic nod and allowed her to keep talking without interrupting.

"I was 19 when that happened. The second they got arrested, I was sent out here to live on this god forsaken desert on land my grandfather owns." She tapped the back glass window a few times with the bar before taking a good swing at it, only managing to put a huge crack all the way across the glass. "He hates the family, but he hates my parents more. My mom told him she'd love to see me die trying to live out on my own, so he just gives me enough to live off of. It's not a whole lot, just enough to survive without too much suffering." She swung at the glass again, managing to crack it once more. "I barely get by as it is, and out here, I have no job, no friends besides the people who talk to me in town. I get 50 dollars a week from my grandpa, and that's it." She swung one last time, and the glass shattered into tiny pieces, leaving a few jagged edges still attached to the frame. "If I leave here, I have nothing. So I stay. I have no other choice."

"So you have been caged like an animal here in the middle of nowhere," he furrowed his brow and walked so that he could stand by the front tire of her now vandalized vehicle, "and yet, you do not seek vengeance?"

"My parents are locked up in cages. That's all the satisfaction I need," she chuckled as she kicked in the few pieces of glass still clinging onto the frame.

He studied her face as she jumped down and proceeded to knock out the remaining 2 side windows and then climb up to stand on the hood so she could finish knocking out the front windshield since the hammer only left a giant hole.

"I can anger in your eyes, years worth of anger and frustration. How is it that one can bottle such emotion and still have time to give a complete stranger hospitality? Does it not bother you?" He asked with absolute curiosity. He had come from a land where anger brought together wars and hatred between realms, and where both anger and captivity lead to insanity. Yet here she was, still smiling away.

She smirked and looked up at him. " Well, I am kinda beating the life out of my own truck, so technically this is releasing all that pent up emotion," she chuckled, giving another satisfying swing right into the window, sending the rest of the glass crumpling into the cabin of the truck.

"But you'll return to your life as normal afterwards; still captive, still stranded," he shook his head slightly.

"Are you trying to connect with me? Cause you're trying awfully hard to pull me into the dark side, I can tell," she laughed while sitting down on the hood.

"I just can't see the reason for your actions when my inner motivation is driven by a similar cause as yours," he rested his crossed forearms on her vehicle.

She exhaled. "I have no reason to be. They got their justice by getting caught and punished for their crimes. I choose to be grateful for what I've been given. Though, should something else come along and give me another option, I'll take it if it's better than my current situation." She gave a slight shrug. "Other than that, I'll be happy for what I've got."

He searched her bright blue eyes for the truth behind her words and surprisingly found it. "If I asked for your help, would you do so?" he asked on a whim.

"Possibly. I'm not a good sidekick; I can barely stand on my own two feet without tripping over myself," she chuckled lightly. He nodded silently. "I'm fairly good with information, though. I managed to get myself through an online college and get a Psychology and Education degree. Other than that, I'm utterly useless."

"That will only be if I choose to stay in this realm. I haven't yet healed enough for me to travel through the back entrances to other realms safely. Until then, I'm bound to Earth without a plan," he voiced while he tapped his fingers rhythmically against the metal.

"Well, until then," Orthani handed him the crowbar she was holding, "I'm sure this will help keep your sanity," she smirked coyly.

He chuckled and gave her a wide mischievous smile. "Oh no, dear. I lost my sanity when my father chose to let me fall instead of trying to convince me to live," he answered fluidly as he took the bar from her outstretched hand. "For it was that day the God of Mischief was unleashed upon the world by the hands of his own father," he said matter-of-factly as he swung an effortless blow to the left side mirror with only using one arm, taking the mirror clean off its mount.

"That's more like it!" Orthani applauded, hopping off the hood to watch.

Loki reached up and grabbed the side of the truck bed and shook it, testing its sturdiness. "Is this sort of metal easily destroyed?" he questioned while walking to the tail end of the vehicle. He looked back at her when he didn't hear an answer.

"I don't really kno-"

She was cut off by a loud 'BANG' as he swung the hooked end of the bar into the bed of the truck, the noise sounding like a shotgun going off. She jumped at the noise, but then laughed at the smirked face of approval that graced Loki's face.

"Not very," he said smugly and with a devious smirk. He wretched the bar out of the hole he had punched into the back and walked around the other side to knock the other mirror off.

"Well I can tell you're feeling better than you were last night," Orthani laughed.

He gave a low chuckle. "Hm mm, I am a god. I heal over rather quickly," he audaciously replied, also brushing back a piece of his black hair that had gotten out of place. He quickly ran his fingers through his hair once, noticing it was still the same length as when he had left Asgard. _I guess I hadn't been falling as long as I thought_, he noted silently to himself as he strode over to the chromed front bumper.

"You're having too much fun with this, aren't you," she shook her head and smiled as she folded her arms across her chest, enjoying the sight of a stranger she had just met destroy her car as if they were high school friends looking for trouble.

He put his hands up. "Of course! I've been exiled from my own home, now free from my past which has only been a lie to make me feel as if I wasn't an outcast! I've been given an identity, one that makes sense and one that doesn't involve my incompetent family ruining my aspirations as king." He let off a wide smile. "I've won. There is no one stopping me from planning my own return. Of course, I won't be to my full capabilities for the next few days, so my sort of meddling and mischief will have to wait, but until then…" He swiftly used the bar to rip the front bumper off her truck from behind his back within seconds flat and without the blink of an eye. "…and it's strangely satisfying."

"Well have at it. My grandpa will probably be sending me another one of his ancient trucks to use until it dies as well, so it has no other use." She rolled her eyes and watched him return to the other side, he eying the hole he had put in the back already. She shook her head and chuckled.

Loki nodded. " As long as he doesn't mind," he said with a smile. His eyes suddenly perked up and his smile fell, however. "Forget I said that, I don't really care anyways," he said with a straight face as he punched another hole in the truck bed with the crow bar, only smile after he looked to see if he had managed to puncture the metal again. He then made his way back to the front end and turned his back to Orthani, who was attempting to put her brunette curls up in a hair band to get it off her neck.

"So much for not being able to be cheerful," she jabbed at him sarcastically, pulling her hair away from her eyes.

"Who said I was cheerful?" His voice rose a few intervals as he turned half of his body to face her, his smile momentarily disappearing. "This is far from cheerful; this is sadistic enjoyment." He smiled as he turned back to face the truck, plotting what he could smash up next in his wake.

"Oh lord, what have I gotten myself into?" she exhaled the rhetorical inquiry only to have Loki look over his shoulder and smirk.

"Just a little mischief," he gave her a cheeky reply, his emerald green eyes glinting in the sun.


	4. Chapter Three: Loyalty Games

As the sun slowly started reappearing above the bland Nevada horizon, a tire was launched off into the sunrise by one of Loki's numerous spells, and the only noise that far away from civilization that could be heard was Orthani's laughter echoing through the air.

"You're very easily entertained," Loki only chuckled, not from how far the tire had launched out and then bounced to incredible heights as it lost momentum, but from the contagiousness of her laugh. His hair had fallen into his face, no longer slicked back in his signature style from all the moving around he was doing. He didn't bother fixing it either.

"I've spent the past 5 years of my life sitting in a house writing articles for a newspaper in Seattle 4 days a week. I'm a hermit, I don't get out much," she giggled, dangling her legs over the side of the truck where she was sitting, which was on the roof of the cabin. "There's nothing to do in this place anyways. If there's any time I'm having fun in this place, that's saying something," she remarked, running her hand through her hair to get it out of her face. "Do you guys do this kind of stuff back where you come from?"

"In Asgard?" Loki clarified, cocking his head to the left. It was a strange question to be asked in his eyes. "When I was young, possibly. With Thor and I running around being the scoundrels we were, I wouldn't doubt it. Once we came of age where we could hold a sword without injuring ourselves, it was strictly learning how to fight in battle and expanding our knowledge."

"Well that sounds like no fun at all," she replied, putting her hair back up before the heat of the sun started to warm the barren lands once again.

"Well, I wouldn't call this fun, more amusing rather," he remarked as she hopped down and went to get another one of the tires she had popped from the rims for him to launch into the air again.

"It's entertaining enough to keep me occupied, unlike being cooped up at home like I normally am," she said, rolling a tire towards the fence at the side of the road where Loki was standing.

"I refuse to stand here and simply be a source of muse for you simply because I come from a different world, Orthani." He gave her a stony glare.

"You can walk back if you want. I'm not keeping you here, you have your own free will. If you want to go back to my place, I can't stop you," she chuckled, hopping back up to where she was perched before.

He narrowed his eyes and stared at her for a moment. "For the first human I've met, so far, you have me quite perplexed."

She furrowed her brow. "What? Why?" her voice went high in confusion.

He let out a puff of air and pressed his lips into a thin line before turning back around to the tire that had landed a few feet away from him. "When Thor was cast out of Asgard, he landed here. Not only were the first humans he grew acquainted with practically swooned over him, they refused to let him wander off to unknown locations," he said as he propped the tire up against the fence. "They never took their eyes off him as if he would somehow manage to destroy anything he touched. Yet here you stand before me-" he paused momentarily to perform a spell that would send the worn rubber tire flying off into the distance, "-telling me I have no limitations when I could betray your hospitality at any moment without reason."

"Oh, so you want to be put on a leash?" she scoffed sarcastically.

"That will be the moment I kill you where you lie." His curiosity quickly turned into hostility as he turned on the heels of his boots. "I will have the decency to say I will use you to my own indulgences only to the point you serve me no purpose. I'm sure you would want the opportunity to rethink that statement," he grimly said, giving her a sneer of disgust before replacing it with a frightening smirk that made her shiver.

She froze.

"Don't ever try and be sarcastic around Loki, Orth! Ok? Ok!" she nervously conversed with herself to appease him once she found her voice again.

He held the look for a moment before dropping the intimidation and just leaving a half formed smile. "You Midgardians are strange," he spoke, shaking his head slightly before jumping into the back of the truck and sitting with his back facing Orthani's shoulder.

"Says a man who fell from the sky last night and survived," she quipped, more so in relief than in fun. Since she had seen a small portion of what he was capable of, she knew she was going to have to watch her words until he trusted her more and knew her a little better. That was, if he chose to stick around for long enough to do so. "So what's your plan?"

"I do not know as to the exact details," he answered simply. "This town is too small and has too little resources for me to begin planning a glorious march to the throne." He did a quick shuffle with his feet before settling down.

"There's the main town 50 miles south of here. I'm sure they've got some stuff you could always use," she suggested, shrugging her shoulders.

_Yes, give me the fastest route to a large city and by the week's end, it shall be destroyed even if I've no plans constructed. _"I would much rather remain off the radar until the time comes when I start wandering between realms in search of an army," he left his gaze to stare at a dot of light gleaming on down the road as far as he could see.

"An army? What on earth are you plotting?" she asked flatly. Nothing he could say could phase her anymore after the two had spent almost an entire 24 hours out at the site where her truck had been almost utterly destroyed by the two of them. As a god, he didn't need as much sleep as it were, and she was able to force herself to stay awake out of the curiosity of wanting to understand and learn from this man who had made her life forty times more interesting.

"It could be to my advantage to take over your world and become your king-do you see that?" he pointed casually towards the light, which was growing larger by the second and then started separating into individual sources of light beams.

Her eyes grew wide. "You want to do what," she asked in a monotone yet urgent tone.

"Both you and I know well enough the human race was created to be ruled, hush. There's a whole armada of them?" he urged, squinting as the lights slowly crawled down the winding road closer to their location.

"Good, maybe it's grandpa with my new ride. You can't just waltz right into the United States of all places, claim you're going to just take over the world and make yourself king and expect people to be ok with that!" Her voice was becoming high pitched with fervor, hoping it was some cruel joke.

"Then you truly overestimate the power you humans possess and underestimate mine," he threw over his shoulder before swiftly standing up and leaping out of the truck, still focused on the light steaming towards them. He squinted as they drove into the dim sunlight and barely illuminated the letters S.H.I.E.L.D across all of the doors on the army of black cars and SUVs. "Orthani, get behind that fence," he spoke calmly, yet his words had a sense of alarm to them. He knew who they were, and they had caused his brother more trouble than he was worth when he had last touched human soil. He figured they would be looking for him.

"What are you so worried abou-" she was cut off as he swirled around, grabbed her wrist and pulled her down from atop the truck and they quickly jumped the fence. "Loki! What's gotten into you?" she yelped as he drug her by her wrist into the open field.

He didn't answer her. He just kept pulling her further away from her now destroyed truck.

"Loki! Stop this, you paranoid psycho!" she yelled at him, and the second she did, he swiftly turned her around, pinned her arms behind her with one arm and then clapped his hand over her mouth, keeping her back pinned to his chest as he crouched down to the ground, taking her with him.

"Do. Not. Move." He spoke with a low, quiet voice in her ear as he eyed the vehicles now approaching the abandoned truck, they slowing to a stop. "If you move or make one sound, they will apprehend us, and I cannot promise you your safety if they do," he mumbled only loud enough for her to hear. He had cast a spell, making them invisible to anyone passing by, but it was weak. He wasn't used to using it to conceal more than himself, so he feared that if she moved suddenly, it could be undone.

A number of the fleet of cars halted at the abandoned truck, and a man stepped out of the one leading them. "The rest of you keep heading towards the GPS location, and if you find anything, let me know," the stranger said over a radio device as the rest of the caravan kept on driving. "All of you! Set up a perimeter!" he barked orders as others stepped out of their vehicles. "We had eyes on two subjects, and they've vanished! Keep your eyes open!"

Loki closed his eyes and mentally cursed to himself. He hadn't been quick enough to evade their sight.

The two of them stayed as silent and as still as possible as they watched the crowd of S.H.I.E.L.D agents scatter as the leader rifled through the truck looking for anything to give him a lead.

"Agent Coulson, there's nothing here," someone called out to him.

"They're here. Or at least they were," Coulson replied, pulling out papers from the glove box. "Well now we know who owns the truck," he said, looking at what looked to be insurance and registration. "Orth-how the hell do you say this name…" he stared at the paper with a furrowed brow. One of his agents looked at the paper over his shoulder.

"I believe it's a long A, sir."

"So Orthani Mynx. So the question is, who is she, why is her truck been destroyed not even two miles away from the location of our data spike, and where is she now. Someone get to her address. If she isn't there, bust the door down and search her place. I want to know who she is."

Loki felt Orthani squirm and he tightened his grip, but he still felt his field falter for a split second, which was a split second too long for his comfort. He watched one of Coulson's workers catch the flash out of the corner of his eye.

He couldn't risk staying there anymore. "Stand up, very slowly and without any sudden movements," he mumbled to her as he slowly stood up straight, guiding her to do so as well. He still kept his hand covering her mouth and he didn't let her arms go. He turned them both so that they were facing towards town, slowly as to not disrupt that thin veil that kept them hidden.

"Sir, I think I saw something-" a voice struck alarm in his gut.

"Two steps backwards, just as slowly-" he was feeding instructions to her, trying to get them both out of there before chaos erupted. "Close your eyes, aaaand-"

With a violent lurch backwards, he had practically transported them a quarter mile up the road in the opposite direction of town.

He gave a quick second to watch the agents all turn their heads towards the location they were once standing. "Run," he spoke as they all rushed to the location he once stood at, and that's when he turned to make a run for it. He once again grabbed onto Orthani's wrist and dragged her along, not giving her time to process what had just happened.

They ran. Not just a quick sprint or a twenty second dash, they ran, and they couldn't stop until they knew they were out of sight. They were still out in the open, where if someone looked in their direction they could easily be spotted. The Nevada land was their enemy since the relatively flat land made visibility easily up to several miles.

They dashed for cover, anything they could use to hide from S.H.I.E.L.D and its agents until the coast was clear. They ran until the land went from being perfectly flat to one that had small valleys and dips in the ground, and that's when Loki took her wrist and pulled her towards an outcropping. His feet slid down the hill and he came to a stop, finally hidden from Coulson's vantage point.

"We need transportation," Loki breathed heavily from the running as he paced in a circle.

Orthani crumpled to the ground. She felt like she was going to pass out from the lack of oxygen and her legs felt like they were on fire. "Yeah?" she managed to breathe out. "Well, unless my grandpa is on his way out here with a car for me, we can't get any sort of transportation," she gasped, reaching into her pocket for her phone.

"And should he not be?" Loki exhaled roughly.

She looked up at him with wary eyes. "Then we have a problem," she forced herself to say as she hit the call button on her phone. She listened to it ring on the other end for what seemed like ages as she tried to regain control over her breathing. As blood began returning to her head, she sat back up and waited for her grandpa to pick up his phone.

"Come on, answer," she growled under her breath as Loki sat down next to her, he also trying to catch his breath.

"Hello, you've reached Amon," a voice echoed from her phone as the line was picked up.

"Grandpa, I need your help," Orthani stuttered swiftly, not even bothering with a hello.

"Orthani dear, I told you it would be a day or two before I-"

"Grandpa, please listen to me!" she cut him off. "I need it now, I'm begging you."

There was a moment or two of silence. "What's gotten you in such a tiff, child," she heard her grandpa say sternly.

"I'm in trouble," she said as she glanced over to Loki and locked her gaze with his.

"If that is the case, then I have no obligation to help you out of it-"

"Grandpa, no, it's not like that."

"Then what is it like."

She tore her gaze from him. "I've got the feds after me."

"What for?"

She stammered for an answer. "They're after someone I helped two days ago. We were out stripping the truck and they showed up. We had to run from them. Please, grandpa. We're stranded out here and they've swarmed our only way into town."

"You're aiding a fugitive? Orthani, I-"

"He isn't a fugitive, granddad," she briskly corrected him, looking back to the man sitting to her left. "He's a friend."

Loki looked up from the ground he was staring at to her, brow furrowed in confusion.

"I cannot help you, Orthani."

"Fine then! Leave me out here to die! Just like mom always wanted!" she shouted in anger. "I know you hate me, but you don't have to leave me out in the Nevada desert to die."

She was met with another round of silence. "Get to where you aren't in the sun. I believe there was an old abandoned gas station 15 miles out from the town limits, and I'll meet you there by sundown," she heard him say quietly.

She knew exactly what he was talking about the second he said it. It was the abandoned gas station she considered going to when she had broken down two days ago then didn't when she discovered she was closer to town than she anticipated.

"Thank you," she exhaled a sigh of relief.

"And Orthani, if I get there and you've lied to me, I will hand you in to them myself," he added in a gruff voice, trying to hide his discontent. "That better be one extraordinary friend you're protecting, otherwise I'll march you up to their forces and hand you in without any sign of regret, is that understood?"

"Yes sir. I owe you." She ended the call and let out another relieved sigh. "There's an old, run down gas station down the road roughly 15 miles away from the town." She breathed deeply, her lungs finally able to take in air normally and not as sporadic. "We should get there long before he makes it there, but it's still going to take 4 hours if we walk," she explained, squinting as the sun started shining at its full capacity at this time of morning.

Loki exhaled. "I knew not that you would try and go through such lengths to protect me."

"You're from a different planet. I'd be stupid to not try and help you," she said as she stretched out her legs. They ached in protest.

"I am a monster who aims to take your realm and rule as king, and you still protect me," he spoke with a cynical tone.

"That isn't your plan; you just want to live outside your brother's shadow. I can't blame you for that," she shrugged, standing up and dusting off her clothes. "Besides, I live in such a remote place that even if some evildoer from another planet took over the earth, his rule wouldn't affect this place much anyways."

He watched her as she stood up for a brief moment before dropping his eyes back to the dirt under his feet. "I did not intend for you to get involved in this," he said more firmly.

"Yeah, well, I am now. And I'm not too fond of the idea of being locked up by a government agency I never knew existed until someone from another planet crashed into the ground." She went to look over the top of the small hill they were taking cover behind. "It looks like they still think we're over near them. They haven't broadened their search yet. We should move before they think to expand their perimeter," she reasoned, ducking back down behind their cover. "Which could be at any moment," she added to urgency.

He nodded, his hair falling in his eyes. He took a moment before he stood off and brushed off his Asgardian attire. "You don't wish to part ways?" he asked, yet he meant it more as an offer than a question.

She turned to him and gave him a questioning look.

"You and I only met two moons ago. You have no obligation to me, nor do I have any obligation to you. Why not turn around and walk home? I have no need for any assistance at this point. Why ensnare yourself with the law when it is of no particular value to you?" He held her gaze.

"I told you. I'm not one to go against someone I've already allied with. I've been cooped up for the past 5 years of my life, so I might as well make something of my life. I told you should something come along and give me another option, and it's better than what I've been living so far, I'll take that option, remember?" She stood firmly as if she couldn't be swayed by persuasion. "Well, I'm taking that option."

She didn't wait for him to answer her. She turned on her heels and headed down the road, starting the long trek towards the abandoned gas station.

He smirked when she wasn't looking at him any longer. This was turning out better than he could've hoped for. Sure, S.H.I.E.L.D caught wind of his presence on Midgardian soil, but he now had someone to not only keep him hidden when he needed to be, but also feed him all the information he would ever need in order to start making his plans. At that moment, in his eyes, she had potential. Whether or not she could live up to that was her fate if she so wished.

_My dear brother, I have outdone you this time_, he thought to himself as he started walking in her trail. _Even you would envy such an alliance. Your beloved Jane is of no competition, should Orthani's loyalty prove to be unyielding._

He tried to conceal his smirk but was unable to, so he simply clasped his hands behind his back and sauntered after her, fully intending to spend this 4 hour trek mentally reveling what he considered to be his first triumph. Someone was on his side for once.

* * *

By the time noon rolled around, the heat from the sun rose to where it felt like the air was boiling, and though they had spotted the landmark on down the road, it was still a mile away at most. The hike was taken in mostly silence, Orthani just focusing on getting to the place without having a heat stroke and Loki just soaking in his success. At times they stopped just to get out of the sunlight for a few minutes, and then they carried on.

When they did finally reach the place, Orthani was the first to break the silence. "I hate Nevada," she groaned, walking underneath the roof of the run down station and then hurriedly sat down on the concrete.

Loki chuckled. "For a world that is famous for its gorgeous landscapes and magnificent creatures, this one certainly has none of them," he spoke with a mischievous flare as he went to sit down on the curb across from her. She simply groaned loudly and leaned back on the ground, resting her head for the first time since the night she dragged him in from the storm. "Are you sure I've landed on Earth?" he joked, drawing symbols in the dust that had collected on the ground from its many years of desertedness.

"Pffft," she burst into a short laugh, "The only exotic thing we have in the U.S. is an eagle that only lives in one national reserve park, and that's no where even close to here. Everything else is just as boring as the country we live in when it comes to Nevada," she said, almost sending herself into a fit of laughter.

He didn't find the statement all that funny, but watching her unable to stop laughing made him smile. He tried to hold in a laugh, but it ended up sounding like he snorted through his nose. "Have you lost your mind?" he chuckled, slightly shaking his head.

"No, I find it amusing that you thought the world would be filled with amazing and wonderful things and then you chose the most unappealing, boring, and least attractive town in the entire world to land in," she giggled as she sat back up. "You could've gone to Las Vegas and they would've welcomed you in like family the way you were dressed when I found you. Though, they'd think you were an actor or something, but still," she exhaled as her laughing fit died down.

"Until the day I lose my patience and someone receives an ice dagger to their head," he pointed out, giving a one sided shrug. When his hair fell once again into his face, he blew out a puff of air at it and then went to slick it all back into place so that it would no longer hang in his face and bug him.

She watched him silently as he tried to mess with it, but due to the heat of the Nevada air, it didn't go back on its own. She watched him get annoyed to the point where he growled, took his hands away from his head long enough to shake out his hair before quickly running his hands through it again. This time, by some sort of magic she assumed, it stayed put this time.

"Why do you do that?" she asked absent mindedly before she was able to catch herself.

"What?"

"Slick your hair back?" She figured that since she brought it up, might as well finish what she started.

He gave her an odd look. "If you stayed one day in Asgard, you'd learn. I learned rather quickly when I was a boy. Thor had a hobby of lurking in the shadows of the castle and would attempt to jump out and startle me when he got the chance. It's easy for a person to sneak up on you when your vision is partially blocked, and if you're dealing with certain people, especially in Asgard, the element of surprise can be deadly," he said, pushing a few strays back.

She nodded, accepting his answer and then leaning back down to rest her head once more. After closing her eyes, she heard him speak again.

"Why ask?"

"No reason. Passing thought. You look a lot less menacing with it hanging in your face," she replied, bringing her arm up to cover her eyes from the bright light that still filtered through her eyelids.

"No one ever listens to a ruler with a soft face," he retorted. "Otherwise, the purpose behind a throne is lost long before it is built," he quoted something he remembered his father telling him and Thor when they were young.

"I know that. I was just saying it wasn't a bad look for you. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously," she chuckled.

His brow rose slightly. _Ah, your words deceive._ Shaking his head, he spoke, "You talk as if you are sleep deprived."

She let out an audible sigh. "I am, no use trying to hide it," she exhaled, not moving a muscle.

"Might I suggest you rest? I know not how long until your grandfather claimed to arrive, but I can imagine it is a ways off," he leaned up against the post that was cemented into the ground directly behind him.

She chuckled. "Clever, trying to get me to let my guard down are you?" She said so like it was more of a taunt than it was an accusation.

He smirked. "If I disposed of you now, I would be stranded in a barren land that carries on past what I can see, hot enough to boil blood, and would leave me with no means of transport to a more suitable location. Even a fool would see that to be an idiotic mistake," he attempted to reason with her. "I am already an outsider to your kind, and I have yet to come up with a plan that will accomplish what I've come to seek out. To come all this way and fail because I let haste get the better of me would be more than a shame."

She hated to admit it, but he did have a good point there.

"I'll be fine-" she couldn't suppress the yawn quick enough for it to evade Loki's notice.

"Rest. If you die by my hands, then I will have trapped myself in this realm until I find someone just as willing to help me in locating the information I need to travel onward to realms not yet discovered. You are worth more to me alive than you are dead," he explained, the fluidity in his words rolling off his tongue effortlessly. "I shall wake you just as the sun starts disappearing over the horizon. Should those petty humans who call themselves agents threaten to disturb us, I shall get you out of harm's way. For if I don't, I die as well, should the worst happen. Is that convincing enough for you?"

She opened her eyes and looked over at him, at least wanting to see the sincerity on his face even if he was just being an incredibly good liar.

"I'm sure you could find another way out if you did kill me," she pointed out. He wasn't really the person who enjoyed any sort of companion tagging along in her eyes. He was capable of finding a way to go on his own without her.

He nodded. "Of course. But why take a chance when there is a guaranteed path out right in front of you," he remarked. "I need you to be quick to think once we get out of this forsaken place anyways. I'm sure resting will sharpen your mind back to where it should be."

"Fine then. You win. You win," she threw her hands up in defeat and put her head back down. "I'll sleep. Just don't take your eyes off the roads."

He nodded and stood up to turn and sit on that same curb, just facing in the opposite direction.

"And as long as you don't get me killed out here," she added after a second thought.

He smirked. "How about you trust me long enough to fall to sleep, and should you wake up, I'll see to it I keep you around a little longer," he created a challenge that was meant to be a lie in his mind.

"Great. I have two days to live," she sarcastically joked, laughing at his fake incentive. _I have a feeling I'm selling my soul to the devil. _The thought crossed her mind, but she dare didn't speak it.

"We shall see," he muttered quietly so that even she couldn't hear what he said. "We shall see."

* * *

**A/N:**I'm trying to make the chapters a bit longer so the story moves a bit faster. I'll be posting just about every day until I say otherwise. Now onto the next!


	5. Chapter Four: First Blood

**A/N: **I have a feeling I'm about to upset some people with this one. Foreshadowing, both good and bad. :P Muhahaha.

* * *

"Orth?" Loki spoke over his shoulder only when he was sure that the woman had fallen into some level of sleep. When she didn't answer, he knew he was right.

He exhaled and stood up to stretch his legs, it being two hours since he had told her to get some rest. He walked around a bit before returning to his post, only to turn around and sit beside her just so he could keep an eye on her instead of having his back to her.

The sun sunk lower and lower into the sky as time passed, and he remained in absolute silence as the hours ticked by, silently conceiving a plan to get him the information he needed to make his next move. Every time a car would wander down the road, he would reach for her shoulder and shield them until it was a far enough distance away. Not once did he see actually see a S.H.I.E.L.D vehicle pass them, and if there was, it wasn't labeled like the others. He didn't want to take chances, however. He was intelligent and clever enough to know that one wrong move this early in the game could change everything. So he covered them both even if the cars that passed them weren't a threat.

Every once in a while he would tear his eyes away from the road to look down at her, just to make sure she was ok even though he knew she would be. At one point, when things had quieted down some, he studied her face, her hair, her clothes, the way her chest would rise and fall as she breathed at an even rate.

At that point, he glanced back at the road, figuring he was going to have to keep her around. Why would he use her and then kill her after he was no longer in need of her when she was the first and only person to offer him any sort of hospitality? She was like him, he figured, in some long, twisted, and crazy way. He knew he wasn't one to keep a follower with him due to the hassle and stress it would cause him, but with her, it felt different. She reminded him of Sif in some odd way, like she would jump head first into something not even knowing what she was getting into. Should something get in her way or cause her any sort of trouble, she had no issue with absolutely obliterating it, and the event with her truck was proof to him of that. If only he could convince her to be more than just a temporary assistant. He could enjoy having a female warrior helping him, and THAT he could get used to.

"You know-" she suddenly spoke, causing him to look away from the road and to her curled up figure lying beside him, "I never really realized how uncomfortable this was until after I woke up," she groaned, shifting her body as she slowly woke up from an uncomfortable and pretty much unhelpful sleep. The sun at this point was almost setting, just leaving maybe twenty minutes left of daylight.

"As long as you are able to think properly once we get to a safer location, then you shall be fine," he answered her as she sat up straight.

"Remind me to never sleep on the ground ever again," she winced as she stretched her arms and her back, no doubt aching from the lack of support a bed would have provided her.

He gave her a cocky, sideways smirk. "Hopefully we won't find ourselves in a situation like this for some time," he said simply. "Could you possibly find out the whereabouts of your grandfather and his transportation?" he nudged, wanting to get out of this place just as much as she did.

"I could, but that won't help him get here faster," she pointed out as she dusted off her back. "He'll get here when he gets here. I'm sure S.H.I.E.L.D isn't making it easy; they've probably got a security check somewhere up the road, knowing the mighty government," she rolled her eyes and brought her knees to her chest, hugging them to her whilst she stared at the ground.

Loki nodded. "Fair enough. As long as he has the resources we need," he stated.

"Are you kidding? He makes his living off of breeding, training, and selling race horses. He's got whatever we could possibly ever need, and if he doesn't have it, he's got the money for it," she scoffed, resting her chin on her kneecaps.

Loki furrowed his brow. "Yet he leaves you in a place such as this and barely helps you survive?" he questioned, looking at her with confused eyes.

"He's money-hungry. What can I say," she shrugged, chuckling slightly. "But he's family and he's given me a lot for someone like him. He'll at least help me out should I ever need it."

She brought up a good point, but he didn't fall for the lie. He could hear it in her voice, she absolutely hated the man and that he hardly helped her out, just by the way she spoke. Loki nodded, however, and then looked back down the road, watching for any signs of movement that would indicate someone moving towards their location.

"So tell me, what kind of plan have you been concocting in that head of yours?" she asked, at this point just trying to avoid sitting in an awkward silence for the rest of the time they would spend waiting on her grandpa.

He looked at her from out of the corner of his eye. "Do all humans talk as much as you do?" he said, a hint of a grin playing on his face.

She snorted a laugh through her nose. "Thanks for that," she shook her head, a smile on her face. "And no, most of them don't; but then again, you have to remember I've been cooped up for far too long in a town with barely over a hundred people living in it, and I've only ever talked to maybe four of them," she noted. "I haven't had a real friend since I got moved out here."

He cocked his head to the side ever so slightly and then back straight. "That's acceptable."

"Though really, what's the plan. We can't be spouting on about what we're going to do in front of my grandpa in that truck, you know; especially with the whole 'take over the world' bit. I'm sure he'd have the feds at his place faster than lightning should he catch wind of that one," she chuckled, watching as the sun started disappearing underneath the horizon to her left.

"I believe we need to find a woman who goes by the name of Jane Foster. Thor met her when he was stripped of his powers and cast out of Asgard," he recalled from the depths of his mind. "She has researched what we Asgardians have known for years when it comes to different realms and travel between them, if I am not mistaken. That will be our first move, seeing as though we don't have any other place to start," he rattled off.

"Sounds easy enough," Orthani perked up.

"Do not be quick to charge ahead. You need to train. I cannot keep dragging you out of situations like what occurred earlier. You should learn to fend for yourself." He stood up and placed himself directly in front of her to address her more formally. This was his sales pitch in a way, for he was only trying to give her an incentive that would in turn give him the reason to not have to abandon her. "I will not tolerate having to rescue a damsel in distress every time I walk into a building, is that clear?"

She nodded. "I actually wasn't expecting you to want to take me with you when you run off causing chaos."

He gave her a devilish grin. "You'll find it hard to resist the thrill of what I do the first time you side with me on a less than moral operation, as long as you aren't cowering behind me and can defend yourself," he selected his words carefully and strategically.

"So you really are trying to turn me into your evil sidekick," she chuckled.

"Take from that what you will," he raised his brow slightly. "I am simply returning the favor from the hospitality you have given me. Should you want, I could give you a place beside me as we rage war only insomuch as you are able to survive on your own in any given situation," he said, making is offer tempting like the devil striking a deal.

"And how would that be useful to me?" she questioned.

"You will learn," he replied simply before turning his back to her. "The more value you become to me, the more reason I keep you around for longer than what I intend to. That should be enough of an incentive to get you to prove yourself to me." He took a few steps forward and watched as the last tiny bit of the sun disappeared below the horizon in the distance. "I can do simple mind control spells that will have anyone such as yourself doing as I demand, so replacements are easy to come by," he said grimly. "Become a force to be reckoned with and I will be forced to keep you alive. Simple as that."

_He's gonna be one of those people who is extremely hard to please,_ she thought to herself. "Why go through the trouble, though? Why not find somebody who can do your dirty work already instead of assuming I even want this?"

"Potential."

Suddenly a truck careened from behind the little run down shop, drifting as it skidded to a halt. Right as it came into view, Loki swiftly turned and held his hand up, ready to send an ice spike into the head of whoever was in that truck should it be a S.H.I.E.L.D member. He was standing directly in the headlights, yet the frightening snarl on his face was as dark as the night.

"Easy! It's just me," Orthani heard a familiar voice yell out of the truck window. It was her grandpa.

She jumped up and grabbed Loki's forearm and forcefully put his arm down. "Relax, will you?" she said softly before turning away from him and heading towards her grandfather's ride.

"What's the deal?" she asked as she stood beside her granddad's window.

"You're running from S.H.I.E.L.D?" he asked, not even bothering to beat around the bush.

She nodded. "How'd you know?" she asked with her brow furrowed.

"They've blocked the entire road up and won't let any one through, hardly. I had to ditch the main road and go off road dune surfing to get to you two, for Christ's sake," he grumbled, turning the headlights off and switching off his truck. He opened the door and stepped out.

"You know who they are, right?" he asked once he had shut the door. When Orthani shook her head no, he answered. "They deal with the big stuff. You know, like those freaks of heroes we apparently have in this world that never show up when they're needed. Stark's with them," he rattled off. "What on earth have you done to piss off that lot?"

She looked to Loki, who met her gaze. It was like a silent, two second conversation between them that didn't need to be spoken.

"They're after him," she said as Loki slowly stepped towards them. "He's like them. Different. They'll pull him in to some lab and turn him into a science experiment when all he's after is to get back to where he came from," she told him, only half lying in order to avoid a long and complicated story that wouldn't end well in any way she could come up with. Ok, she was full out lying, but she had a good reason for it. She noticed Loki hadn't even bothered reverting his Asgardian clothing into more human-like accepted style, but it was also dark and her grandpa wasn't paying too close attention to what he was wearing in this lighting.

"So I'm supposed to help you hide him when they're searching everywhere for him? I'm pretty sure they're feds and they could arrest the both of us for aiding and abetting a fugitive, Orthani," he said firmly.

"Well, it's also not fair if we just leave him here. They'll hunt him down and force him to bend to their will. Look what they did to Stark!" she argued back. "Come on, granddad. We can't just feed him to the sharks."

He stood there in silence for a moment. "Fine. But understand that if you get yourself locked up like your mother, I'm through helping you," he grudgingly agreed.

"Got it," she nodded.

He stared at her for another moment before actually giving in. "Alright, get in," he grumbled as he huffed towards the truck door again. "We've got to take the outback in order to get back to my house, seeing as though you two cause a national security issue in the most remote place ever," he grouched as he got in his truck. He turned the engine over, yet didn't turn on his headlights so that he could slip past the wandering eyes of S.H.I.E.L.D and avoid getting all three of them thrown in a cell.

Orthani turned to Loki and muttered, "You want to sit in the back by yourself or should I sit with you?" She eyed his reaction to her grandfather carefully.

"I do not trust him. If I feel he is deceiving us, I won't hesitate to take his life, so take that as you wish," he muttered back, making sure the man couldn't hear him.

"I'll sit in the back," she said, suddenly gaining some quirk. "You know. Just in case. Better safe than sorry," she rambled on, turning away from him and heading towards the truck. She opened the back door on the driver's side and jumped in and Loki followed her lead. He shut the door once he was in, and they were off, speeding towards the open land so that they wouldn't get caught by the ones they were fleeing from.

* * *

"It's gonna take more than 6 hours to get there. Now, I'd love to chit chat, but it's twice as hard driving off road at this time of night without headlights, so I'd suggest you keep quiet unless you want us to hit a ditch and flip," Amon said as he turned the car in the direction he needed to go.

The truck suddenly hit one of those divots, though it was a minor one. It was still enough to throw its passengers off balance as it dipped and then leveled out.

"Like that." Amon added, just to prove his point.

The next time they went over a less than level terrain, Loki had already turned sideways in his seat and had his back resting on the door, so he wasn't thrown off balance as much as Orthani was, who just about fell into his arms at the sudden lurch.

"Will you take it easy?" she snapped, swiftly recovering and sitting back up before she or Loki could figure out what happened.

"You should've called someone else to get you if you wanted that," her grandpa answered smartly.

She growled under her breath. _Sure, play that card, why don't you._

The next time it happened, she caught herself, but the time after that, it ended with her almost tossed against the door and her half sitting in Loki's lap. This time she chose not to recover so swiftly.

"You know, I'm about twenty seconds away from smashing his face into the steering wheel," she whispered with a highly annoyed smile to him before actually attempting to sit back up straight.

That's when he made the vehicle falter on purpose, causing her to fall right back. "I heard that," he told her, causing her to growl.

"Fuck off, you ass," she cursed. "I have half the mind to kill you myself."

"I'd love to see you try and then fail to survive on your own," he quipped back, purposefully driving over another divot.

Just as she was moving off of the unamused Asgardian, he grabbed her arm and just held her to him. "Sit still before you end up injuring yourself trying to fight it." He rolled his eyes.

She stared at him for a second with cold eyes before huffing out a "Fine" and obliged to resting up against him for the rest of the ride home.

He chuckled at her flustered act. "I might be a monster, but I don't think I am that repulsive," he joked, pretending as if he had taken offense to it.

She started to retort, but he clapped his hand over her mouth before she had the chance to say something that could possibly set him off into another one of is angry rampages. "How about you go back to sleep before you send yourself into a nervous fit and run your head through a window, hm?" he hummed, knowing it would just irritate her more.

"Shut up," she growled, knowing that he was sadly right and just obliged to it anyhow. _Might as well, right? God knows how many day's we'll spend running from these people, and sleep might not be an option,_ her mind reasoned with her. _It's like a strange, messed up version of Bonnie and Clyde!_ She suppressed a laugh that comment almost caused, and just curled up and waited for her mind to turn off.

Loki only closed his eyes so that he could let his mind rest, but remained awake and alert so that he could sense something going wrong long enough ahead of time so that he could act on it. He kept a hand on Orthani's side where her ribs were to keep her from shifting when they would hit the occasional rough spot on the terrain. It was against his nature, of course, but to him, it was better to have her quiet and still instead of fidgeting the entire way home. It was less stress for him, so he took the easy way out.

He remained as still as he could, just listening intently and focusing on the sounds around him.

"Looks like you've got her falling all over you," the gruff voice of her grandpa snapped him from his meditative-like state.

His eyes flew open. "You have no place making such accusations," he said, his voice cold and menacing.

"Simply making an observation," granddad replied just as coldly.

"Then next time, you'd best make them silently."

Her granddad hesitated to reply. "You've got quite the nerve to talk like that," he snipped. "Especially with you apparently being hunted down like a fox."

"And you have the nerve to speak as such to a man who is being hunted by those who deal with mutants with power not even you petty humans can dream of having? You still dare to challenge me?" Loki taunted him, knowing very well he wouldn't continue the conversation.

Of course, he remained silent.

"I thought not." He closed his eyes once more and slowly fell back into that state of heightened senses while he let his mind rest.

"You must not be from around here," he added as Loki almost went completely into that state.

"You must not want to live to see another sunrise. Interrogate me further and see how much longer you live, shall we," he snarled this time.

Amon just smiled and kept quiet the remainder of the trip. He'd get the upper hand eventually.

* * *

As he pulled up the driveway to the estate, he glanced in the rear view mirror. He knew the man wasn't sleeping, but Orthani was.

"Good. Now that we're here, on MY property, I shall give you a five minute head start," he started talking, knowing very well Loki was listening.

"If this is your attempt to threaten me, you're much mistaken," Loki answered coolly, keeping his eyes closed and still not moving a muscle.

"You will have about 15 minutes before someone from this so called S.H.I.E.L.D crew shows up and takes you," Amon said smugly.

"Is this how humans treat their heroes?" Loki mouthed off, still not bothering to move until he stopped the nonsense.

"You are no hero."

"And you are no saint," Loki spat, not even letting him finish his thought.

Orthani was secretly listening, having woken up when her granddad turned his truck off.

"…and I'll have both of you locked up for whatever the hell it is you did,…" was all she needed to hear from him for her anger to snap. All that anger, built up from living in the worst possible condition for 5 years, with him being a multimillionaire and not even trying to help her create a new life for herself without being killed in the process.

She felt Loki chuckle underneath her. "You are doing this for her, not me. Finally, you've found a way out of supporting your daughter's illegitimate child. By locking her up for good and getting her out of the way, this must be like a blessing from god for you," his words were so thick they were dripping venom as he snarled at the man who dared to cross him.

"How dare you."

"How dare YOU, grandfather!" she snapped, unable to take the shit from him anymore. "I asked for one favor. One. And you can't even give me that without double crossing me! I haven't done anything to you! I ask for a little charity, and all you do is treat me like I'm absolutely worthless!"

Her sudden screaming even made Loki jump, startled at her outburst. He had been so wrapped up in casually insulting the man that he hadn't bothered to notice she had woken up.

"I can't help that my mother was a whore! I'm sorry she had to go and get caught at the scene of her crime and then so inconveniently dumped me to become your responsibility. You didn't have to go and shove me in a box you call a home and wait for me to slowly go insane and kill myself. I've had it!" she practically spat in his face.

As she was verbally tearing a family member of hers apart, Loki slowly reached past the driver's seat and discretely locked all the doors to the truck without the man noticing it.

"Kill him," he heard Orthani snarl at him. "After all he's done to me, he deserves it."

Loki's face lit up like a kid at Christmas time, except it was a dark and devilish grin that could only mean one thing.

"Finally."


	6. Chapter Five: Constant Vigilance

**A/N:** Thanks for all the reviews, you guys! I'm serious, it makes writing this stuff a whole lot easier. I love hearing from you guys! If you finish reading this chapter and you feel like I'm jumping the gun, please do tell me. I'm trying have semi-long chapters for you guys, so if I need to slow it down, I will. Just let me know in the reviews. =)

* * *

Before Orthani could blink, Loki had snatched one of his throwing ice daggers out from underneath his coat and plunged it into the man's temple with such speed and precision that it was over in milliseconds. Then it was just silence. Everything was calm; the air was no longer thick with contentment between two family members. It was still.

"Now what?" she swallowed her words as she stared at the damage.

"We leave," Loki answered, reaching over to pop the locks on all the doors once again, first accidentally hitting the window button before actually finding the right one. With a soft 'click' the locks went up, and he opened the door to his left. He quietly stepped out and then turned back, holding out his hand for her to take and help her out of the truck.

"Wait, his house is empty…" she trailed off, still somewhat dazed at what had just happened. "No one else lives here. It's a mansion that has everything we could possibly need-"

"Will someone not notice his absence?" Loki shut the back door when she jumped down.

"Maybe in a month. He's been known to not show up to events before. He's a drunk, everyone expects him to skip out most the time cause he can't control himself. Technically, we have a month to get what we need and get out before anyone will notice he's missing." Her voice had gone rather soft. "That and he has at least 6 other properties scattered across the world. The chances of them coming here first would be slim to none. We could stall them."

Loki nodded. "As long as we stay away from eyes that would wander, that should be long enough to accomplish what I need to have done." He caught her staring into the window of the truck. "Shall I get rid of him? I don't think humans would be too pleased to see a corpse staring at them from a driveway, I assume." He glanced to look in the same direction. Though most of the property was surrounded by trees and fences, it would still be easy to spot if someone decided to turn around in the driveway.

She laughed. "Right, right. Uuuh, yeah, go ahead. As long as he can't be found, then do whatever you need to do." She gave him a nod. "Though I'll need his wallet and his keys. Those will definitely come in handy," she spoke as she walked up to the front door of the house.

"And what will you do?" Loki asked in slight curiosity.

"Well. I'm gonna break into the place to switch the alarm off, or else this place will be filled with cops quicker than you can say your own name," she said, peeking through the glass window.

His face went from curiosity to a stone cold, emotionless face. "If you mess this up…"

"Then I'll be the second person you kill since you've stepped on this planet. I know, I know," she finished the statement for him. "I know the code. It's a matter of timing it right, and since I'm no longer in the face rec. software on this thing, if we go through the front door with the key, it'll go off no matter what."

_By Valhalla, she's going to get us both killed,_ he thought, shaking his head. He opened the door to the truck so he could deal with his first unfortunate yet absolutely deserving victim.

By the time he turned around to throw those keys and what she called a wallet on the ground for her to pick up, she had vanished. He swept what was in his immediate sight quickly before looking around wildly to find where she went.

"You are no magician like I am, Orthani, yet you've managed to…vanish." He dropped the keys and wallet to the grass and looked around, just to make sure he wasn't blatantly overlooking her.

He heard a loud whistled. "Up here, pretty boy," she added playfully.

He looked in the direction of her voice. She had climbed up the tree right next to the two story house and was waving at him from the branch next to the balcony.

"You might want to get back into those regular 'human' clothes. If this doesn't work, we'll have cops to deal with and wearing that will definitely tip them off," she spoke as she swung her leg over to touch the balcony flooring and she jumped down, landing with a soft 'thud.'

"I'd rather you not completely mess this up for the both of us," he said, putting his hands behind his back as his fancy garb faded into his more human-like attire.

"I won't," she gave him a faint smile. "If that happened, I'd be a horrible sidekick not even worth anything whatsoever," she chuckled to herself. She climbed over the railing onto the other balcony for a room that was one over from the one she was outside. She was searching for the door to her mom's old room when she grew up here, and when she found it, she gave a sigh of relief to see the sliding glass door was still unlocked.

_Ok. You have 40 seconds to run in, find the keypad and shut it off or else I'll be joining my ever-loving parents in prison._ She inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. _Come on, you can do it. _

She threw the door open and made a dash for the main upstairs hallway and then jumped over the banister instead of just taking the stairs down. She surprised herself when she managed to not fall or break anything when she landed, but it was short lived. She ran to the keypad and punched in the numbers.

4923

The LED screen flashed a CODE ERROR three times before asking again.

_Oh shit, what's the code?_ In her haste, her mind had mixed up numbers to where she couldn't recall what the order they were supposed to be in.

2394? No, 3492? Still no. The device started beeping frantically, telling her she had only a few seconds before the alarm would sound.

9342? It was a guess on her behalf, for she really didn't know. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited. The machine had stopped beeping, but the silence that fell after that was deafening. She waited for the blaring siren sound that would emit from the walls of the house with bated breath.

It never sounded. She made it by only with a fluke that she somehow managed to press them in the right order without really knowing. She exhaled a huge sigh of relief and turned to press her back to the wall. She slid down to the floor as she thanked her lucky stars she had managed to pull that off.

"Holy mother of goodness me," she exhaled, clutching her heart for a moment as she attempted to get her heart rate back to normal. She closed her eyes and just sat there for a moment, wondering how the hell she had managed to pull that off. Once she had regained her composure, she reached back up, popped the plastic cover off the thing, and removed the batteries, completely disabling all of the alarm's abilities to make a call out to alert authorities.

She walked over to the front door and unlocked it from the inside and swung it open, revealing just her granddad's sparkly new truck out in the driveway. She looked out, searching for Loki who had disappeared from her sight as well as the now dead corpse of the last remaining member of her family that was living in freedom.

Since she didn't see him, she went back into the house to search the place. She had only been to this place maybe once or twice when she was younger. She was 24 now, and it had been 12 years since she had last visited for Thanksgiving Day when her parents weren't knows as murderers.

That's when a thought entered her mind. Now she was no longer better than them. She was now like them: a heartless murderer. _Well, I guess it was bound to happen_ she said, walking through the halls trying to refresh her memory as to how the place was laid out. _It must run in the family_ she chuckled to herself, wandering into the kitchen.

"I see you managed to not alert the authorities," she heard a smooth voice say from behind her. She swirled around to see Loki standing in the doorway with his hands behind his back.

She smiled and puffed herself up in pride. "See? I told you I can do some things," she gloated, neglecting to tell him she almost did if not for the fluke of magically punching in the numbers in the right order just seconds before the alarm sounded.

He let a faint grin play across his lips. "So it would seem."

She exhaled and kept walking around. "So let's see. S.H.I.E.L.D has more than likely raided my shanty little home, so there's no going back to that," she said, heading towards what she thought was her grandpa's work room. "And I don't know about you, but me wearing a red plaid shirt and some jeans everywhere I go is only going to throw suspicions, and no, that isn't just me making up an excuse to go on a shopping spree," she pointed out, creeping into the work room and started to rifle through papers.

"Of course," Loki added, only going as far as the doorway and leaning against its frame.

"So that's number one. Two would be to get your information on that Jane woman. Am I doing good so far?" She turned around to get his approval.

"You excelled when you managed to get us inside without setting off what you called 'alarms,'" he remarked. "For someone like yourself, I expected you to get us caught. You aren't necessarily the operational definition of stealth," he smirked.

"Ouch, I see how it is," she laughed, having by that time shaken off the shock from the events that went down in the truck. She pulled open one of the drawers to the filing cabinet in the corner. "Ah ha! Now we're talking!"

She saw Loki give her a curious look from the corner of her eye.

"Bank information, credit cards, insurance, tax information, titles, everything. Thank god my family has the trait of keeping any paperwork we ever receive," she smiled, looking over the information.

When she saw her own name typed up on one of the reports, she froze. _He has my name on everything he has…_she stared at it in confusion. _He has my name on his bank account and everything and never said a word about it…?_

Loki saw the sudden shock on her face. "What?" he asked, walking over to stand beside her.

_Ah, he was getting money from the government for keeping me in his own personal witness protection program. I guess that's one way to get a bonus refund on your taxes,_ she thought in disgust.

"He had me on everything. I apparently had access to all of this, yet he stuck me out in the middle of nowhere," she muttered, throwing that folder on the table beside her. "Oh well. I guess I'll be off to go put a dent in his fortunes," she said, grabbing the one slip of paper she needed from the bank folder and then grabbing the other 6 folders she took out. She headed back out towards the kitchen and Loki followed her.

"And what do you suggest I do while you run off?"

"You can do whatever it is you want," she eyed his strangely, somewhat chuckling to herself. She had almost forgotten he came from a world that didn't have the technology humans had. "Just don't manage to get cops on our trail," she laughed.

He cocked his head to the side in a weird sort of nod.

"I'll be back!" _I'm already an accessory to murder, might as well go all out_.

* * *

"Ok, so your Jane Foster is in Kansas," Orthani said while walking into the study, finally cleaned up, freshly showered and wearing new clothes. She had on dark washed jeans and a black knit top with a cowled collar, and she had her hair down so it would dry faster, it still damp from her shower.

"You say that as if it means something to me," Loki looked up at her from where he sat, which was at the head of the mahogany long table that was in the center of the room.

He liked this room. It was a secret room, one that he wouldn't have found unless he had searched around the house like he did. It was his kind of room, one that was hardly lit besides the grand chandelier hanging over the table; its lights not very bright as to not hurt the eyes of someone who would sit in that room and read for hours. It had rows upon rows of books, like a personal library meant for a king.

He liked it. It made him feel relaxed. It made him feel empowered and at home here.

"Well then get over here and take a look," Orthani snapped him out of his peace. He gave her a sharp look and then grudgingly stood up and walked over to her. She had made her way over to a desk and turned on the reading lamp mounted on the top. She stretched out an old map and pointed to the middle. "Right here. That's Kansas. It's kinda like Nevada, except it maybe has one tree," she joked, tapping the map where it said 'Nevada,' indicating that was where they were.

"So that will be a journey taken in due time," he nodded, noting the distance in his mind.

She looked at him sideways. "Alright, then what's the plan in the meantime?" She stared at him, practically watching the gears in his mind turning.

"What would you suggest?" he asked.

She shrugged. "You're in charge here," she pointed out. "I'm not making the calls here, you are."

He nodded. "Then we wait. We find out more information on her, and then we shall make our advances." He waited a moment before nodding and turning back to go to the chair he was sitting in before, approving of his own decision.

She nodded. "Will do. I have a hunch there's a few books that'll be worth reading. I'm sure you'll find some sort of lead in here," she added, rolling up the map and shutting off the desk lamp.

"Is that so?" he said, his voice more bored than curious.

"Yeah. Just standing right here, I can see 4 books on Einstein's theory and one on Norse mythology," she pointed out.

"Is that intended to have some sort of value to me?"

"Einstein studied the relativity of time and space," she laughed at his monotonous drone. She watched him as she waited for an answer. He simply gave a nod and she went to get those 5 books to set them on the table. "Let me know when you finish them. And if they have nothing of use to you," she placed them to his left and then walked out of the room to move the computer monitor and the modem into that study. She could tell he took to that room, so she decided she might as well move anything they could use into there. Computers, charts, ledgers, anything they might need would be moved into that one room.

Once she got the desktop moved into the study, she left him to his own madness. She walked down to the guest bedroom where she was going to stay until their location had been compromised. She had already packed the closet with the clothes she had gotten and pretty much made herself at home.

Though while that shopping trip was in a way necessary so that she wasn't left running around in raggedy clothes, it was a cover for something she had been planning since Loki had extended the offer of making sure she stayed around as long as she made herself a valuable asset to him. She quickly looked out the door and down the hall to make sure he hadn't left the study to follow her. When she saw the coast was clear, she went to fish something she had thrown in the closet the second she had gotten back. It was a black, sleek case with a locking clasp on the front. She popped the lock and opened it.

There were two stainless steel silver plated daggers placed perfectly in red velvet smiling back up at her. The blades were 4 ½ inches, and with the hilt, it was roughly 7, which was just enough to fit comfortably in her small hands.

"Hello my friends," she whispered, picking one up by the hilt and taking the blade out of its sheath. She didn't dare do anything besides admire the workmanship of it, knowing that she'd just end up hurting herself should she try anything else.

She heard faint footsteps down the hall, and she quickly tried to hide it, putting it back in the case and shutting it. She quickly shoved it back underneath the bed.

"You know, hiding something from me is not how you want to start out this relationship," she heard a menacing voice at her doorway.

"True. But if I didn't, I wouldn't be doing things right," she quickly recovered, ignoring the faint sneer on his face and giving him a smirk of her own.

His sneer suddenly turned to a smirk and he gave a small nod of approval. "You have picked up fairly quickly on the way I choose to control things," he spoke fluidly before turning on his heels and walking a ways down the hall. "Bring them down. Wrap your wrists, and I shall be waiting for you in the courtyard," he called out behind him as he continued walking.

_Damn him, he's good,_ she mentally cursed to herself as she reluctantly pulled the case back from underneath her bed. She took them out of the case and set them on the bed and then changed out of that nice shirt she was wearing, not wanting to destroy it the same day she got it. She put on a more casual short sleeved black shirt, grabbed the leather hand guards that cut off at the knuckles of her fingers that she'd also gotten with the daggers, and followed him outside.

* * *

"There is something to be said about how someone chooses to fight, I would assume you know," Loki started talking the moment she stepped out the front door. "My brother and his other miscreants ran around wildly smashing and hunting like savages, brutally beating his opponents with brawn and strength until victory," he told her as she walked over to where he stood. He had changed into his heavy armor this time, not just his royalty worthy decor.

"What's your point?" she said as she strapped on the leather guards.

He glared at her. "Control your tongue, Orthani," he gave her a warning look. "His methods of fighting, while they were indeed effective, were ruthless. He did not stop to plan out his plan of attack. He simply walked in with Mjolnir and destroyed anything in his path." He pulled out his iced throwing dagger from beneath his coat. "Whilst he was running rampant, I learned that silent killers and strategic planning and thought were ones worth more than just our traditional Asgardian warrior."

She listened to him carefully. "And by traditional, you mean the ones who just pillage around yelling at the top of their lungs until they've won?"

He smirked. "That is one explanation." He took two seconds to close his eyes and inhale before throwing his dagger into a wood post that once held a fence together to surround a garden. It sped forward and pierced the wood with a 'thunk.'

"Precision and accuracy, paired with speed and power, put into the right hands, can be deadlier than any other form of battle," he said fluidly with pride. "It takes nothing but motivation to run into battle and start bashing away at your opponent, but it takes skill, discipline, and practice to eliminate them with one simple strike."

She remained silent, mostly because he was speaking as if he was explaining an art form, and it was somewhat enchanting to listen to.

"I cannot teach you much, seeing as though most of my methods are paired with sorcery, but I shall teach you what I can," he said, returning his hands behind his back.

"Oh, so how am I supposed to learn the rest of it? Go and find a trainer in town?" she said sarcastically.

"You will not leave this house unless I give you permission to do so," he snapped. "Showing your face around publically can only end in us being easily tracked by those who are looking for us."

_He has a good point,_ she huffed. She didn't know how she was going to pull this off, but hell, she had nothing else better to do. "Fine," she grumbled, looking down at the ground.

"That answer isn't sufficient, Orthani. Look at me and tell me, from your own tongue that you will not disobey me." He knew better than to accept the simple reply.

She rolled her eyes and complied. "I will not leave this house without your permission, Loki," she said, glaring at him as she did so.

He nodded. "Fair enough. Now…"

_Damn, since when did he have to suddenly take all control, geez_, she kept the complaint to herself. Though she knew he was right.

"…Are you listening to me, or have you gotten distracted by your own mind?" Loki's slightly higher pitched voice snapped her from her thoughts.

"Sorry! Sorry. It's been a long day. My mind was off," she pressed her wrist into her forehead and shook her head. "I'm here. Sorry."

He looked at her with patronizing eyes. He held out his hand. "Daggers, if you please?"

She reluctantly handed them to him and he took off the sheath of one of them. He flipped it to where the blade landed in this hands and he held it out for her to take.

"You hold it as if it is an extension of your arm, not a tool," he said as she took it from him. She gave him a confused look, and he exhaled somewhat impatiently. He took the second blade out of its cover and held it by its hilt. "It is not just an item you hold in your hand," he spoke as he started playing with it, doing fancy little tricks that would take hours upon hours to master. How he managed to avoid getting his fingers cut up, she didn't know. "It is a part of you the moment you lay a finger on it. You must hold it firmly enough to maintain control, yet loosely enough to let it flow to your will," he said poetically, finally catching it by the hilt once again and then lowering it to his side. "It'd do you best to remember that."

She nodded. "Will do."

"Hold out your arm, perfectly straight-no, you're going to kill yourself doing that before you get the chance to actually face someone with these," he stopped her before she even got her arm up half way.

_Oh boy, this is going to be a long night,_ Orthani exhaled. It was like a 5 year old karate class; no one ever did anything right.

* * *

And so she practiced. After that one short hour of him teaching her how not to hold a silver dagger, she brought it about herself to teach it to herself. She had hung a large old burlap sack in the empty stables that were on the property, hidden behind a grove of trees and not being used since her granddad's heard was shipped out to bigger property. She had been using that as a punching bag which let her learn how to throw her body around a bit. As she started getting fit and gaining more muscle on her, she pushed herself harder. She'd run through the groves to gain agility, sneak around them at night and try to sneak up on the deer to work on stealth, use the old stable building as her personal trapeze, and use the training pit's log pole that was two feet thick as a jungle gym for her to learn kicks, flips and spins. For what else was she to do, stay inside and bore herself to death? Of course not.

Constant vigilance: That's all it took.

It was like she was teaching herself her own brand of martial arts. When two months had ticked by, she had created her own fighting style even though it was slightly unorthodox and was still untested on an actual person. It wasn't terrible, nor was it incredible. It was simply enough to get her by, mostly based off of momentum and physics. Same with her knife fighting. She had no sparring partner, therefore she could only do so much and Loki refused to put her in that position.

He knew better. He knew himself too well to put her in such a dangerous and precarious situation. His refusal to assist or teach her was for her protection, even though he half the time wasn't aware what she was doing. He never had the thought cross his mind that she had actually taken his proposal seriously. No sane person would. He just thought she was staying away from him, finally realizing he was a monster and even though she had promised to help him, that didn't mean she agreed with his ways.

And he was ok with that, or at least that's what he kept telling himself. Now, he just chose to look past her, chose to look over her and simply focus on his work. He didn't notice she had gotten into shape. He never noticed she went out and got a custom made fighting suit, inspired by the Black Widow herself so that she could move around more efficiently and swiftly. He was letting the smaller details slip by him. He had let himself get too soft too early, and now he was paying the price for that.

And the day he saw that was the day something went terribly wrong.

She was running in the groves again, dodging trees and jumping branches like she had been for the past two months. She was small, so she had gained quite a lot of agility and mobility, especially with that suite she wore that she absolutely adored. Unlike the person she was working for, it made her feel like she was worth what she had been working at for all this time.

That's when it hit her. Literally hit her. A body flew out from behind a tree and crashed into her at top speed, sending her flying to the ground. When she hit, it knocked the wind out of her lungs and before she knew it, she was being rolled over and had her hands pinned behind her back.

"Agent Coulson, this is S.H.I.E.L.D Team One Leader, we have one in custody, I repeat. We have your girl in custody."

If she was in a daze, it was suddenly gone.

"Oh no you don't, you great ugly brute!" she yelled, using her legs to kick his feet out from under him which threw him off balance and he fell to the ground. She jumped up, and swiftly surveyed what was around her to see if he was the only one. The next thing she knew, she felt her legs sweep out from underneath her, the agent pulling the same stunt she did to him on her. She was quicker, however, and caught herself with her hands and catapulted herself back to her feet before she was pinned to the ground again. She grabbed those two shiny daggers that had not yet tasted human blood and held one to the man's throat. "Tell them I'm loose," she snarled her taunt threateningly as the blade caressed the skin on his neck. "Do it!" She yelled at him when he hesitated.

He lifted his hand up to his earpiece, shaking like a leaf from fear. No one had told him she was armed, let alone dangerous. "Disregard the last statement. She is armed and dangerous, I repeat, armed and-"

He never finished the last word. The second she knew he was dead, she ran for her life as if it depended on it. Sure, it wasn't her life that depended on it, it was Loki's.

She bolted for the house, not knowing how many S.H.I.E.L.D units there could possibly be in the immediate vicinity. She made the safe assumption that they wouldn't shoot her simply because she would be their woman to go to when it came to trying to get to the God sitting inside, still unaware of what was happening outside.

When she got inside, she slammed the door loudly behind her and bolted it shut, her lungs begging her for air by this time. The second she was able to take in air, she screamed.

"LOKI!"


	7. 6: So the Lion Lies Down With The Lamb

**A/N:** This one is a little shorter today, but it's also I guess a writing experiment for me. Don't be a stranger! I love reading what you guys have to say! (To Person anon: I'll start writing some more once I finish what I need to do today and I'll see about posting it later. Promise =))

* * *

She bolted down the hall towards the study and ran straight into Loki, who had jumped up and started running towards her after hearing her scream.

"Quick, we've gotta go!" she gasped, grabbing onto his arms in panic, and staring into his eyes, which were inches away from her own.

"What happened to you? Are you injured? You have blood smeared on your face!" Loki's eyes widened.

"I'm fine! Pack what you need, S.H.I.E.L.D's got people outside!" she explained as she trotted to the closet and pulled out a set of duffle bags and tossed some to him. "Grab the little stick thing that's sticking out of the box underneath the computer, and grab all of our work, quickly!" she ordered him, giving him little to no time to process what was going on.

She ran to the room she was staying in and tore down all the clothes that were hanging in the closet. Unlike Loki, she had the unfortunate fate of being human and couldn't change her clothes at will, so she took what she could grab, hangers and all. She grabbed the box her daggers came in, along with the two sets she had found hidden in the attic, and shoved them in the duffel as well.

She zipped that one up, barely, and threw it in the hallway. She grabbed another empty one and ran upstairs to her late grandfather's room to his safe. He always had left it open, since it was where he had stashed all of his guns and he wanted to have easy access to them should something ever went wrong. She took everything; cash, guns, lockbox full of what were probably old jewelry and other valuables, all of it. She took the 9 mil glock and secured it on her waist belt just in case things went south rather quickly, and then turned around to stuff her granddad's personal laptop into the duffel as well, along with its charger and then finally zipped it up.

She met Loki in the hallway just as he had sauntered out with the duffel she had given him.

"What'd you get?" she asked quickly, knowing they probably didn't have too much time before SHIELD had backup at their door.

"All of it. Any that might've been of use to us," he said calmly.

She nodded. _I hope so._ "Come on. Get to the garage. We've got to get all of this stuff in his SUV-"

"Why not the truck out in the front?" Loki asked, somewhat confused.

"So in case we can't find a place to hide out, we can use the back for whatever we need, now stop asking questions and go!" she rushed him, grabbing the remaining duffel bags and dashing out to the giant SUV that was hiding in the garage.

The second they had thrown everything in the back and closed the trunk, she heard a loud bang from inside. She assumed they had just broken down the door. She swirled around and faced the door leading into the house. "Don't. Move," she whispered as she drew out the two daggers she had fastened to her belt.

Loki raised his brow. _When in Valhalla did she become as she is? _He asked himself, somewhat shocked at how she was acting. He watched her creep silently back into the house and then suddenly she ran around the corner and all he heard was a loud 'THUD' and the sudden screaming of "Man down! We've got a man down in here!"

_Hel if she truly believes that I will stay here in the midst of all this,_ he thought, darting down the hallway to follow her. He watched as she took down another soldier by swinging a powerful kick to his jaw and then keeping her momentum from that move up to plunge one of her daggers into his temple, just as Loki had done to her granddad.

She turned around to face him. "Come on, out the front. We've got to clear the place out if we want to get a clean getaway," she nodded her head towards the front door.

He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't find the words. He just nodded and followed her to the front door. She peaked out the window, trying to get a good look at what they had to deal with. "You ready?" she said with a smile.

He nodded.

She threw open the door and within a blink of an eye had jumped over the guardrail and kicked one of the soldiers in the middle of his back, taking him down to the ground.

There weren't many people guarding the place, he guessed because they didn't expect them to be so willing to fight back. He didn't mind though. Killing was only half the fun to him. He smirked as he went outside to join Orthani in slaughtering the only thing standing in their way of freedom.

* * *

"Ok, come on, before they get someone else up here to catch us," Orthani said as she kicked the last remaining soldier that had come after her. She and Loki made a dash for the garage, jumped into the SUV and sped off before another wave of SHIELD soldiers and agents showed up at the door. "Here, I've nicked this off one of them," she said tossing a clear glass tablet over to Loki. "Once we find a place to hide out for awhile, I can see if I can disable the tracking device on the inside and we can have a look at what SHIELD's got planned for us," she smirked, heading them in the direction of the highway.

"Have you lost your mind?" he asked with a straight face. "I turn my back on you for a moment and you have morphed into a fearless warrior," he said with more of a questioning tone in his voice more than anything.

"I definitely wasn't fearless, I was shaking in fear on the inside," she shook her head.

He nodded. "We must go and seek Jane before these people realize what we are after," he said calmly as if they hadn't just slaughtered 15 men just a few minutes ago.

"Done," she agreed, heading in the direction they needed to go.

Getting there was the hardest part, but once they had honed in on her location, getting the information off of her was easy, and they were off within a week. They searched for places to stay, most of the time making a temporary home in the ghost towns the west was rather famous for. They would stay there for a few days, and then move to another location just to avoid another incident like what happened with her grandfather's home.

For two weeks they wandered, searching for shelter and trying to decipher the cryptic writing of Jane Foster. _When will these humans learn to write legibly,_ was a thought that crossed Loki's mind several times as he stared at the pages in front of him.

At this point, they had made it to an abandoned warehouse that was in a ghost town in the middle of New Mexico. Night had already fallen and Loki had managed to get a small flame in the center of the floor to keep the place lit and somewhat warm until morning, or at least warmer than it would've been without it. When they didn't have a place like this to stay in, they would sleep in the back of the SUV, simply getting rid of the second and third row of seats to make room for the both of them.

That was where Orthani was at the moment. Curled up in the back of the truck asleep with a blanket they had found stashed in the back, she assumed for emergencies. Loki had been noticing she had been sleeping a lot lately, probably from the lack of some real food and water.

He put the book of notes written by Jane down and simply stared into the flames after stealing a quick glance of the curled up body lying in the SUV. He felt as if this was his fault, and no would he ever say that. She had helped him, though. He felt obligated to watch over her and protect her, especially with how far she had helped him get in his plan. She could have left him in that storm, and yet she led him to her home. She could've left him to wander out in the desert for days, and instead she helped him get to a place of shelter. She could've let SHIELD take him right then and there when they were ambushed and lived in that house as if she was royalty, and instead she had fought and trained to become a force to be reckoned with in order to help him escape. And now here she was, still helping him even though she was slowly losing her strength.

He really did owe it to her. It wasn't that he morally believed that he did, he simply wanted to believe he did.

He jumped slightly when he felt a hand touch his shoulder, snapping him from his own thoughts.

"You look overly troubled, Loki," Orthani wrapped the blanket around her tiny frame and sat down beside him. "What, can you not find what you need from Jane's research?"

He shook his head no. "I have found what I needed, though it was a passing note written, not necessarily research, just information someone indulged to her," he said simply, returning his gaze to the small fire.

"Care to share?" she asked.

Again, he shook his head. "I have nothing other than a name, and the knowledge that it has become a SHIELD top priority research project, what that means, I do not know," he muttered.

He looked hurt to her. She couldn't put her finger on as to why, but that's all she could tell.

"Are you alright? You seem grim…" she pointed out.

He turned his gaze from the fire to her, studying her blue eyes that had lost some of their shine to them. "I did not mean to bring you into this," he said flatly, his face not changing his expression.

"Oh, this again?" she huffed, rolling her eyes. "You might've not meant to put me in this situation, but I've chosen it," she said, a faint smile gracing her lips. "I chose this from the second I told you to destroy my truck. Sure, it looks terrible now, but I'm the one who chose to follow you around," she chuckled.

"Look at you! You are slowly dying. You do not have the powers of a god; you are human. You have not eaten in days," he took his hands away from his face. "You are weak and dying because I selfishly chose to have you follow me and make my part easier. That was not of your choosing," he shook his head, his eyes going soft for the first time since his father practically exiled him from Asgard.

"I'll be fine. So what if I haven't eaten; it's because we don't have a source of food. I can deal with it a while longer-"

"And if your mortal body shuts down because of it?" he asked harshly.

She blinked. "So you care?"

"Of course I care. This very well could have ended with me being captured by SHIELD the day after I stepped foot in this realm if not for you," he sneered, annoyed that she wasn't complying with his side.

"You aren't the type of personality to care whether or not someone helped you or not," she gave a light chuckle.

"I choose to," he said firmly, his eyes hardening once again.

Orthani stared into his eyes like she was searching them for a something. She could tell, and that was the moment she saw it in his eyes, that even under all that madness, there was just a man who had been betrayed and lied to all his life.

She pointed at him. "That's why," she didn't bother explaining.

"What?"

"That's why I stayed. That look in your eye, you wanna know what that says to me?" She wrapped the blanket around her tighter. "You do all this because someone crossed you. Someone betrayed your trust. After I gained that trust from you, I'm not going to turn around and abandon you again. I'd be the first person you kill when you start this war."

He scoffed. "You are not obligated to stay here. If your wish is to leave, then so be it," he said so calmly.

"No."

"Then do so before you die from your starvation," he snapped a little more than he intended to.

She chuckled, and then did something that took him by surprise. She kissed his cheek. "You're cute when you throw fits like this," she laughed, standing back up and walking back over to the SUV. "I'm not leaving! Not this far in the game," she yawned, hopping into the back and then curling back up into a ball so she could go back to sleep.

He sighed. He had tried to convince her to save herself for her own good. He could take it from here on his own, he knew that for fact. She could run and save herself, and he could come back for her once he had traveled to this unknown realm he had read about and returned with his army. If she would do so, continue her training, he thought she could deserve the place he had once jokingly offered her.

Instead, he feared she was to die out here with him, trying to get him to where he wanted to be.

_She's stubborn as a mule, I'll allow her that,_ he thought, returning his gaze back to the fire.

"Will you go to sleep already? I'll be fine, stop pretending to worry over me," Orthani's voice called to him from the SUV, snapping him out of his thoughts for the second time.

_This is far from pretending, dear Orthani. _He gave a faint smile before complying, standing up to walk to the vehicle. Though he didn't actually sleep that night. He wasn't all that tired, so instead, he sat in the cabin of the SUV, planning to silently thinking to himself as she fell back to sleep.

"Nonono, I'm sick of waking up with a terrible crick in my neck. Lie down, will you?" she said after a moment of silence.

"Why?" He raised his brow at her request.

"So I can use you as a pillow, if you don't mind," she propped herself up on her elbows.

He gave her a stony look, definitely not amused.

"Ok then. Forget I asked. Goodnight," she gave up, laying back down and shutting her eyes.

He watched her for a moment before changing his mind.

"Sit up," he gruffly muttered, causing her to shift.

"You don't have to do it, I was just asking-"

"Must you always talk so much?" he cut her off, which surprisingly made her smile. He laid down and let her use his chest as a pillow for the night.

"Thanks for taking a break from your evil ways for a night and letting me totally use you," she said sarcastically.

He smirked. "I could very well abandon you here in your sleep, I'm sure you know."

She chuckled lightly as she pulled the blanket up to her chin. "But you won't. And you know it."

His smirk actually turned into a smile. _The nerve of the woman_, he thought to himself as he allowed his mind to shut off and let him slowly drift off to sleep.

"Sleep well," he softly mused as his mind finally allowed him rest.

* * *

"I'm not leaving! Not this far in the game." When she had climbed into the back of the truck, she had a smile on her face. She had won, in her own eyes. She had befriended a villain, become what he thought would be his evil minion, and instead, actually became of value to him.

Sure, in the eyes of an outsider it wasn't the greatest accomplishment one would want to achieve, but to her, it was something massive. She didn't think he'd ever look at her like THAT; like he cared. That was worth the world, for someone who had been so broken hearted from what he went through back at his home to actually care for someone who was once a complete stranger without a motive was something she wasn't used to.

For once she felt sympathetic for him. Sure, there was no excuse for one's actions, but she didn't blame him for them, but for once she saw a glimpse of that pain. Of course she couldn't feel it, nor did she dare try and say she understood it, but no amount of evil he could do would change the fact that the pain was still there.

"Will you go to sleep already? I'll be fine, stop pretending to worry over me," she pulled herself from her own thoughts as well as calling out his own. She was actually surprised when she felt the car move. He actually listened to her.

_I wonder…_

"Nonono, I'm sick of waking up with a terrible crick in my neck. Lie down, will you?" she spoke, wanting to test something out.

"Why?" He returned flatly.

She rolled her eyes, though not to where he could see it. "So I can use you as a pillow, if you don't mind," she propped herself up on her elbows, trying to see the reaction in his eyes, though the look he gave her was not one of approval. "Ok then. Forget I asked. Goodnight," she gave up, laying back down and shutting her eyes. _I tried. I guess it's only a conditional thing_ she thought to herself, exhaling softly.

"Sit up," she heard him suddenly break the silence with a less than amused voice. Or at least, to her it sounded that way.

"You don't have to do it, I was just asking-"

"Must you always talk so much?" he cut her off, giving her a look to where his eyes softened for a moment. She smiled, knowing very well that he had just purposefully used the same phrase he spoke to her when she watched him fall to the ground and then miraculously walk away; that was the phrase he muttered the first time she met him. _How ironic, _ she thought as she fought to contain her persistent smile. She did as he told her, and then she curled up beside him, resting her head on his chest.

"Thanks for taking a break from your evil ways for a night and letting me totally use you," she said sarcastically, hoping and praying he wouldn't turn and snap at her sarcasm, which would unravel everything she had just done that night.

"I could very well abandon you here in your sleep, I'm sure you know," he returned her comment with one of his own.

She let out a chuckle, and then absent-mindedly nuzzled into his chest as she pulled the blanket up to her chin, trying to cover up the smile on her face. "But you won't. And you know it."

_And so the lion lies down with the lamb_. The thought left her at peace as she slowly drifted off to sleep. Why she felt at peace in the arms of a killer was beyond her, but she did.

She was long asleep before he wished her to sleep well.


	8. Chapter 7: The God of Lies and Mischief

Sunlight worked its way through the dirt stained windows of the abandoned warehouse, which slowly brought Loki back into consciousness. He could feel the slow rise and fall of someone else's breathing not in time with his, and he cracked an eye open to see Orthani still lying in his arms curled up on his chest. Her face was at peace, not tainted with any sort of emotion or contortion like it normally was. He didn't want to wake her, but he knew he had to.

"Alright, Orth, get up," he spoke, shifting his position.

She didn't move.

"Orthani?"

"What?"

"It's morning. Rise up."

"I don't want to," she groaned, curling herself up closer.

He exhaled. "But we must." He waited through that moment of silence before she growled, sat up and stumbled out of the vehicle. He gave it a minute before he followed her. "Did you ever manage to enable that S.H.I.E.L.D device to begin working again?" he questioned, subtly stretching his back before sitting on the floor.

"Not yet," she yawned, walking to the passenger side of the SUV and retrieving the tablet.

"Could you?" he added, also briskly waving his hands in a small circular motion to cause an Asgardian fruit to appear in his hands out of thin air.

"Of course," she muttered, closing the passenger door and returning to their circle of work they had spread out on the floor. She took the blanket from her shoulders and spread it on the ground like a picnic blanket and sat down on it.

He simply handed her the fruit without saying anything, though he did start flipping pages in one of Jane's books as he held it out. She apparently didn't notice. "Will you take this before you expire due to lack of nourishment?"

She looked up from the glass tablet. "What?" she said, slightly confused.

"Eat this. It will replenish your strength enough so that you can function properly," he offered her the fruit with an outstretched arm. "It will not taste as succulent as those that grow in Asgard, seeing as though it was but a little magic trick, but it will do for now," he spoke as she took it from his hand.

"You can't just summon in a plate full of food?" she said as she eyed it with a wary look.

"Not if you wish to survive another two days," he said flatly, flipping to the page he was at the night previous.

_I'm not even gonna ask,_ she thought as she bit into the fruit, just glad she was finally able to put something in her stomach for once.

For the day, she simply was messing around with the glass tablet, just trying to get the computer to turn on. She already broke the tracking chip in it by using her dagger to slowly dig a small hole in the glass without breaking the entire thing and snapped the small piece in two. Though she still didn't know how the thing actually operated.

That is, until she flipped it over and just about broke it 5 hours after she started fiddling with it, but it did cause the main screen to come on.

"Ok, note to self. When looking at technology you have no idea how to work, just drop it on the floor. Works like a charm," she spoke, chuckling at the fact that she could've made that situation turn out a lot worse depending on what she did.

Loki, who had been pacing around the warehouse thinking to himself, stopped walking and turned his head so that she was in his line of sight.

She started playing with the touch screen, swiping things left and right almost effortlessly and bouncing between different files and such that were opened up already. She was more so getting used to the controls and the screen sensitivity, or at least that's what she told herself. She was actually just screwing around with it. "La di deeeeeeeee, la di daaaaaa," she sang in a mocking voice as she made things dance across the screen. Never had she laid a finger on something so high tech, so she was highly enjoying herself.

_She is out of her mind, _Loki thought, rolling his eyes. "Will you stop fooling about?" he mused, taking a few steps in her direction.

"Aw, such a party crasher," she laughed. She was expecting that sort of reaction from him when she started doing that, and it was funny to her that he actually lived up to it. She swiped through the open programs, one being the layout of the house she and Loki had been hiding out in when S.H.I.E.L.D showed up in the first place and the plan of attack they took. It was all tactical stuff that was on the device, nothing of actual use to her.

As she closed things down one by one, she noticed a file, locked in the corner of the main screen. It had no name or even a file size underneath it. She tapped it, hoping it wouldn't get her locked out of the device again.

The system automatically threw up an 'authorization code needed' screen, and then it automatically processed in a username and password and let her into the file. _And this, folks, is why you never set your technology to log you into stuff automatically for your own convenience,_ she smirked to herself as it processed. It pulled up loads of information, all about one specific project.

"Well hel-lo," she emphasized, quickly skimming through certain phrases before swiping to another bundle of information. "And what is it that you're keeping secret, Director," she muttered to herself.

"I do recall talking to yourself is a sign of insanity in this world, am I correct," Loki taunted her playfully as he continued pacing back and forth.

"Ah, you must be rubbing off on me if that's the case," she retorted back with an equal energy, still focusing mainly on what was in front of her.

"I don't talk to myself," he chuckled.

"No, you just pace manically across a warehouse floor." She swiped again to another page of information.

"Tesseract…" she spoke out loud to herself, curiously rubbing her forehead.

Loki stopped dead in his tracks. "What did you say?" He swirled around to face her completely this time.

"What, Tesseract? It's a S.H.I.E.L.D thing, apparently…" she trailed off, ignoring the sudden perk of interest in Loki's voice.

"Do tell," he said, swiftly gliding over to where she sat crossed-legged on the ground.

"Uuuh, it's an energy project, apparently. It's this weird…cube thing with apparently a lot of power to it," she said, summarizing what she had read so far. "They're studying it to be able to use it as an infinite energy source for god knows how many people…or at least that's what I'm getting from this…" She glanced up at Loki and could tell his mind was whirring to life.

_The amount of dark energy one would need to summon to be able to send someone into the outer reaches of the universe to realms outside our reach would be extensive. Father explained this to Thor and I when he first explained the properties of the Bifrost._ It was like something clicked. _I have no knowledge what this Tesseract was meant to have purpose for, but simply…_

"…army," he simply muttered under his breath. After what seemed like ages of perfect silence, he bolted to life. "We must leave. Immediately," he declared, turning to pick up the book he had set on the floor. "I'll assume that since that is a S.H.I.E.L.D device that there is a way to pull up information as to where this project is taking place, correct?" he spoke as he threw the book in the vehicle.

"Woah, Loki, hold the phone here," Orthani stood up to her feet quickly. "We can't just waltz into S.H.I.E.L.D and demand to see their top secret project." She suddenly felt unsteady on her feet and she put out her hands to steady herself.

"Why not?" Loki turned around to ask her.

"Because they will shoot us both. You, they'd probably stick in a box and use you as a lab rat for the rest of your life. Me, they wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in my head. You really want that to put a dent in your plan?" She had suddenly gotten dangerously lightheaded and her vision had been suddenly blocked out by millions of tiny black dots. She crouched back down to the ground to avoid completely blacking out and put a hand to her forehead.

Loki watched her slowly sink to the ground and he furrowed his brow. "What has gotten into you?"

"I stood up too fast and the blood rushed out of my head. I'm fine," she spoke as she shook her head a bit to get the blood flowing again.

He stared at her for a moment. "Come along then." He said it only because he knew she was lying to him. When she didn't get up, that only confirmed it for him.

Just as she was gaining her vision back, she felt a firm hand around her arm help her up to her feet and guide her over to the SUV, where she sat down on the rear bumper.

"Leave-" he spoke in her ear.

"I'm not leaving-"

"And get yourself proper nourishment before you actually do kill yourself." He kept her gaze just long enough for her to see the seriousness hidden away behind his green eyes. _I've got my own plan to attend to whilst she is absent anyways,_ he thought.

"I know you better than you think, Loki. You won't be here by the time I get back," she said smartly, her vision coming back to her fully.

_Smart woman._

"You have my word," he said sincerely.

She raised her brow at him. "Loki. You are the God of Mischief. You are the God of Lies, your word means nothing," she pointed out. "I'm going to need more convincing than just 'you have my wor-'"

He kissed her. Nothing too big or extravagant, he just did it to get her to shut up. It worked though, since when he took a step back from her, she looked shocked half to hell. "Sometimes you should realize that arguing with me just for your own amusement isn't the best of ideas." He rolled his eyes and backed away from the vehicle. "Go. I shall be waiting for you when you return."

He then vanished right in front of her eyes. All she could do was stare blankly at the spot where he was once standing.

"What?" was the only thing she could manage to mutter, still slightly shocked at what had just happened. She stood there for a second, trying to get her head back on straight and then stepped into the driver's seat of the SUV.

* * *

The second he felt his feet touch ground again, he heard a faint alarm go off. _Damn these mortals and their technology,_ he cursed to himself. He didn't bother hiding himself; he knew the only person there was the one person he needed to see. Erik Selvig stumbled down the stairs, clutching a robe to his chest. He suddenly turned on the lights, causing a godly powerful light to illuminate the once dark room.

Loki squinted, almost blinded by it.

"How the hell did you get in here?" he exclaimed, staring at him with a confused look.

"Not important," Loki said firmly, staring him down like a wolf did its prey.

"Course it is! This place is locked up tighter than the White House, how'd you manage to get in!" he yelled in panic.

Loki shushed him, putting a finger to his lips. Erik suddenly went quiet. "You will go to S.H.I.E.L.D, Erik Selvig," he stated with purpose.

He was working him, trying to get into his mind so that he could have even a sliver of control over him. He watched Erik's posture go from defensive to relaxed.

"I will go to S.H.I.E.L.D-" he repeated the god standing in front of him.

"And you will discover everything they have learned about the Tesseract-"

Again, he repeated everything Loki said.

"And you will not leave their ranks until I have released your mind from my grasps."

Erik repeated the sentence word for word, his voice sounding more like he was in a trance with every syllable.

"Good," Loki hummed in content. "Now go," he demanded, and watched as the man suddenly jumped into action, his eyes now having a hint of unnatural blue to them. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make Loki comfortable enough to know he had a small amount of control of his mind.

He swiftly turned to exit the house, and once he walked out of the front door, he was met with a pitch black sky. _That transit took longer than I thought,_ he realized, reaching up to rub his forehead. _I have a terrible feeling that I might have lost my only assistant by the time I return,_ he groaned. He turned on his heels and began the transit back to the warehouse.

* * *

When Orthani drove back into the warehouse, she didn't bother putting the car back where it once was. If they were going to leave within a few days, she didn't see the point. What she did notice was that Loki wasn't back yet.

_Like I said he wouldn't be, the lying bastard._

She sighed and turned the engine off. She had given him plenty of time, having been out for at least 4 hours. Whatever it was, it shouldn't have taken him 4 hours. It had gotten dark in that time, so the heat from the sun wasn't there to keep her warm and without Loki's little ball of flame floating in the center of their circle, the temperature wasn't anywhere close to warm.

She debated just packing up what was left on the floor and driving off, but then she knew that karma would come back to bite her. Sure, even if he showed up within another half hour, she really had no reason to be upset at him. Hell, knowing him, he'd probably track her down and kill her for snatching the information that was the only thing keeping him from his so called 'army.'

She simply sighed and stepped out of the driver's seat and onto the cemented floor. After she had closed the door she had driven in through, she went and grabbed the blanket that was still lying right where she left it and threw it over her shoulders. _At least I won't be sleeping on an empty stomach_, she thought, trying to at least find something positive about the situation.

She opened the trunk door and lifted it up all the way so that she could climb into the back to sleep. She curled up, trying to get as comfortable as she could but try as she might, it just wasn't possible. She grabbed the duffel bag that held her clothes in it which she had pushed all the way up to the back of the driver's seat and pulled it to her, using it as a rather terrible pillow for the night. She left the door to the back of the SUV open just so that when Loki returned, or rather, IF Loki returned, he would at least not be totally alienated by her.

Since this was the first time in a week or two she actually had food in her stomach, she was able to fall asleep quickly, no matter how uncomfortable she was.

* * *

7 hours after Loki had originally left, he arrived back at the warehouse. Though sure, the errand had only been one that was relatively short once he got to the location, the travel had taken him longer. Sure, even with magic, it took time to travel from where he was to the location Erik was occupying even though to him, it seemed like a few seconds.

It was still dark out when he got back, and he got a gnawing feeling in his stomach when he reappeared in the warehouse and saw the vehicle waiting for him. It was almost pitch black in that warehouse, which made it all the more colder inside. The feeling in his stomach eased slightly when he saw the rear door was still open instead of closed. Maybe she wasn't mad at him.

_I've apparently gone soft, fretting over a woman,_ he scolded himself as he slowly stepped towards the vehicle and stopped short at the small circle they had made. He simply made a twisting movement with his wrist and fingers, and the glowing ball of warmth and light took its place at the center. He collected whatever else they had left on the floor and gently put it in the back of the truck.

She was sound asleep and didn't even stir when he leaped into the back with her. To him, she didn't look at all comfortable. How she managed to get to sleep was beyond him.

He sat in contemplation for a moment, wondering if he could get away with doing what he was plotting in his mind without her waking and then not be brutally waken up the next day by her screaming in his ear about how he sincerely promised he'd be back when she would arrive and then promptly didn't hold up with his end of the promise. He exhaled and decided if she hated him by morning that was her choice, especially since he honestly thought he would be back before then. He slowly and very quietly lifted the blanket off of her, rolled it up loosely and set it to his side. He then carefully lifted her from where she was lying and rested his back up against the side of the truck, letting her head rest just barely at his collar. He then grabbed the blanket once again and draped it carefully over the two, knowing that even though he was fine with the cool temperatures that she would probably freeze by morning without it. He held her to him by wrapping his arms loosely around her frame and after again muttering the phrase 'sleep well' in her ear, he let his mind go blank as he tried to slip off into sleep.

"You're such a liar," he heard her mutter as soon as he had settled down, and his eyes flew open the second she started speaking.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry it took so long to get this up! I actually left the house a bit today and didn't get started on this until 5 this afternoon. . My apologies. I'll try and not get the next one out so late. x.x

And to Alittleteapot: I've got it covered. =) He's on is way now to start his journey to the land of the unknown to get his godly spear of doom as we speak, in terms of this fanfic. x)

And Lime Toaster Cat: She's a lamb compared to him, considering he's an absolute psycho. xD And she might be a badass, but she's a badass because he told her that's what would keep her alive even though he had no actual plans to kill her. So it all sorta levels out.


	9. Chapter 8: Rules of Deception

He subconsciously wrapped his arms tighter around her. "The travel ended up being longer than expected," he said flatly.

There was a moment of silence. "You still promised…" she muttered, not even moving a muscle. "And then you promptly did exactly what I said you would-"

"Must you always argue-"

"Yes, I've got to argue with you!" She suddenly sat up and yelled at him. "You didn't even tell me what you were doing! You could've gone off and completely left me here without even warning me-"

"Yet I haven't."

She went silent, knowing that he was unfortunately right. "Why?"

He held his breath. "You're of value to me. I'd much rather storm into S.H.I.E.L.D with a woman who I know will keep her loyalty to me rather than walking in alone," he improvised on the spot. His silver tongue hadn't failed him yet.

"Nice catch, but you only found out about the Tesseract earlier today, so that doesn't account for the past almost 3 months," she retorted, practically towering over him due to how they were positioned.

He smirked. "It's difficult to get something past you, Orthani. I'll give you that much," he said slyly, enjoying the annoyed expression that fell on her face when he spoke it. "What is it that you told me earlier?" He faked a look of contemplation. "What was it, 'you look cute when you throw fits like this' hm?" he taunted her.

She growled. "You infuriate me to no end," she huffed as she curled up to him once more.

"I'm sure that with my understanding of what you are attempting to say, infuriate isn't the correct word," he chuckled. He heard her growl and suddenly, she had done exactly what he pulled with her earlier. He smirked when he felt her swiftly turn around and plant her lips on his. He took it as a mental victory even though he knew she was bound to do it eventually regardless of the fact he had provoked her to kiss him. She wasn't one to leave the score uneven, and hell, he didn't mind it, but as each kiss became more fervent, he was finding her more and more intoxicating. He really had gone soft for her, and rather quickly he might add.

This wasn't just a quick kiss just to get someone to shut their mouth, oh no. She knew him well enough that he would just laugh at that silly attempt had she just left it at that. She let her frustration with his trickster antics melt into passion, knowing very well Loki wasn't too much of a fan of being physical with anything even though his current actions were betraying him. Though when he bit her lip and used that millisecond where she gasped in slight shock to his advantage and turned the tables on her, she realized she had fallen for one of his tricks. Before she could even process what was happening, she was on her back, pinned to the floor of the SUV by her wrists.

_Jesus Christ, Loki where have you been for the past years of my life _she thought as he completely made her mind go numb. Lost; that the only way she could describe how she was feeling. Completely and utterly lost, wrapped around a villain's finger more than anyone in their right mind would allow them to get, and now here she was absolutely fawning over the way he was kissing her. How she managed to let her guard down that much to enable that to happen, but she no longer cared. There was nothing that felt better to her than having him pressed up against her paying attention to solely her.

He knew that he shouldn't have let things get so out of hand, but damn he couldn't get enough. She was like poison; the second he took a taste he was hooked, never to go back to the maids and house girls of Asgard. Oh no, this game of emotions was a dangerous one, and he had just clumsily stumbled into the last trap. For a brief, flitting moment he wondered if Thor had gone through the same thing with his Jane Foster, but that moment of thought quickly vanished when he realized he had so foolishly let her wrists go and they had encircled around his neck, only drawing him in closer. He had to support a fraction of his own weight on his arms to avoid absolutely crushing her, but by Valhalla was she underneath his skin by now. Though he had been avoiding it, he reluctantly allowed himself to fall into the moment.

They were perfectly synced at this point, it really only taking them a couple of seconds for things to click into place. She had won this one in his eyes, seeing as though she had broken through to him and brought out this side to him that he was sure never existed in the first place.

"So for how long have you been planning on enslaving me, you alluring creature," he murmured a few words at a time when he got the chance, still being unrelenting and capturing her lips with his after each pause he took to speak.

She rolled her eyes briefly before closing them again. "You're worse than the devil," she weakly protested when she managed to speak in between the rough parting and colliding of lips (and tongues, though Orthani would be rather reluctant and shy to admit to it out front.)

She felt him smirk. "You've brought this upon yourself," he chuckled, not letting her up just yet. "I believe I owe Thor and apology."

She laughed. The heat of the moment was pretty much gone due to that comment. "What, lose a bet?"

"No, I think I called him weak at one point for becoming ensnared by a woman so quickly when he was cast out to Midgard, and I've managed to fall to the same fate." He shook his head and climbed off of her so that she could sit up.

"Oh when he finds out," she laughed, crossing her legs and sitting on the opposite side of the truck. "And I'm sure that isn't the case. I'd bet you have some gorgeous Asgardian maid waiting for you back at home."

He shook his head. "No one seems to fancy a monster, as it would seem," he exhaled roughly. "Should there be any who do, I highly doubt they could even come close to matching what you have managed to accomplish in these passing months."

_There he goes, that silver tongue of his working wonders,_ she rolled her eyes.

"So am I forgiven for my inability to estimate time correctly, or shall you still want to throw me off a cliff by morning?" he said seriously with a straight face.

She eyed him briefly. "Barely. I'll let you slide this time, Loki of Asgard," she stuck out her tongue slightly while teasing him. "And you might be a monster; I just don't blame you for it," she smiled, grabbing the blanket that had been haphazardly discarded in their slight loss of control and wrapping it around her shoulders.

He nodded. "I believe rest is in order," he spoke, quickly changing the subject. "It shall be a few days before we leave, and within a day's time, I must once again traverse to ensure my plan is indeed working."

"Fair enough," she yawned. "I think it's safe to say we've become a more destructive version of Bonnie and Clyde," she said as she crawled over to sit next to him. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"Have I incidentally put you under my mind control," he joked, pulling her chin to get her to face him so that he could check her eyes for that hint of unnatural blue.

"No, cut it out!" she laughed, pulling away from his hands. "You just managed to crash land next to a girl who doesn't care about moral standings, let alone motives," she sighed as she curled up next to him.

He gave a moment's thought before he lifted her chin with his hand and again pressed his lips against hers. This time, it was softer, gentler than the previous encounters.

Orthani's heart leaped in her chest, noticing the difference in this kiss than before. She honestly didn't think he was even capable of compassion, let alone have the ability to be so tame he acted as though he was trying to avoid breaking glass.

He pulled away. "And if my motives are that?" he asked, his eyes somewhat narrowed and face practically emotionless.

"What?" she breathed slightly confused.

"Claim you," he said simply. "If my plans go as I wish them to, you could very well find yourself sitting on a throne of your own, calling yourself Queen," he mused without a single hint of any sort of expression besides sincerity brushed on his face. He took her hand in his own and brought it gently to his lips to kiss her knuckles. "That's a thought I could grow quite fond of, I know not about you. Of course, that is, should you accept the motives in question?"

She chuckled. "Unlike you, I don't really want to rule the planet. I just stick around because I have a feeling this is where I should be. I can't explain it, nor am I going to even try to," she put her hands up in defeat. "but you've proven to me that there's an entire other world out there that we're all ignorant to and I kinda want to see if it actually exists," she rambled on.

"You're a terrible liar."

"I'm tired, leave me alone!" she laughed shyly and curled herself up tighter in the blanket to hide a faint blush creeping up on her cheeks. "Just don't abandon me and leave me to S.H.I.E.L.D's jaws, and I'll stick with you. Got it?"

"Of course," he smirked.

"Good. Goodnight then," she yawned once more before resting her head against his shoulder.

"Sleep well," he droned, resting his arm around her and then kicking back into sleep himself.

* * *

Within days, they were on their way to the rather small S.H.I.E.L.D base where they were hiding the Tesseract project. They had their flawless plan already set out, or so they thought was flawless.

Anyhow, when they got to the small base, they waited until dark to make a move. Loki had his now inside man, Erik Selvig, wander outside to let them through the security doors mindlessly, he not even realizing what was happening.

Orthani had a plan of her own, however, and once she was inside, slipped through the shadows to go her own way. She had one thing on her mind: revenge against Agent Coulson for pretty much singling her out as a criminal when at first, she was only running with what she had been given.

She snuck past a few offices, only interested in the one at the end of the hall. She crept silently towards it, crouched down low to the ground to avoid making too much movement. When she got to the door, she stood off to the side and quietly knocked on the door. The second it swung open, she shot up, clapped a hand over his mouth and pushed him back into the room.

"Remember me?" she growled as she took a dagger out from her belt and placed it to his throat, kicking the door shut from behind her.

Loki, however, continued on down the hall, heading for the one room he was interested in. He found it rather easily, though he did have to cut down a few guards in his way. He opened a sliding glass door, and his gaze met with a glowing cube in the center of the room. He gave a quick glance around to make sure no one was near him and then approached it with curiosity in his eyes. He took it from its perch, scanning it thoroughly as it gave off a blue glow. He closed his eyes, simply focusing all his energy on the thing as if it would somehow unlock for him.

_What is it that you do_ he wondered to himself as he carefully put it back where it was, still focusing all his magical energy on the thing. When he opened his eyes, there was no change, so he took his hand off it, drew in a large amount of his own energy, and then shot it off directly towards it.

Suddenly an alarm sounded throughout the entire building, causing him to jump and swirl around, startled at the loud noise. He looked around wildly, trying to figure out what was going on.

"What did you do?" Orthani yelled at him as she walked into the room.

"I haven't done anything!" he yelled back as he watched the entire back wall of the room illuminate in blue light. He watched and then realized what had just happened.

_This isn't simply a cube of energy; this is a portal to another realm,_ he stared at it, somewhat impressed at what was happening in front of him. _Which ultimately means she cannot come or else she will either die from the travel or be killed by whatever resides where this takes me…_

He turned back around to face her. He saw guards on their way down the hall towards them and he realized Orthani was already on it. He looked around the room and did the only thing he knew would keep her from following him. He didn't want to do it, especially after he had practically pledged his own unwavering loyalty to her just a few days before but he had to keep her safe. He didn't want to have her end up dead due to a promise that was silly to make in the first place, and even though he knew S.H.I.E.L.D would be on her like a pack of wolves, he still had a decision to make.

_They will keep her safe. That is all she needs, is to be kept safe and on a very short lead._ He squinted his eyes shut, knowing the decision he was about to take was about to destroy her.

He collapsed the room with one swift move of his arm, the noise absolutely deafening. He wasn't going to see her die today because of him. He only hoped she would forgive him when he managed to return. He watched her as she was tackled from behind, whispered the words "I'm so sorry for this," and turned on his heels and plunged himself into the dark abyss of the unknown.

Orthani had turned to deal with a group of guards that had already cornered them, simply slashing away at them as if they weren't even competition to her. She was so tiny and quick that they could barely keep tabs on her. Just as she put the last one in the ground, the entire building shook violently like an earthquake had struck. She fell to her knees after being knocked off balance, and in that split second she was down, she had a guard tackle her from behind and pin her to the floor.

She would've done something about her sudden capture had she not looked up and saw Loki through the glass walls of the room, he slowly disappearing in the strange blue aura caused by the Tesseract, not once looking back.

"Loki!" she screamed as she guard pulled her to her feet. "You promised me you wouldn't leave me here! LOKI!"

Suddenly the ground lurched again and the building groaned under the pressure from a wormhole being created right in the middle of the base. The ground started rumbling as it slowly started collapsing in on itself. "Get everyone outside!" she heard a guard from behind her start yelling orders. "Someone went and opened the damn thing, the whole place is gonna cave!"

"LOKI!" she screamed again as she watched the thing close right in front of her eyes. The guard started dragging her towards an exit, her hands already bound so that she couldn't escape him. "You lying bastard! This is how you treat me after all I've done for you? I should've known you were just a COWARD using me to get everything you fucking wanted like the no good USELESS Asgardian Prince you REALLY ARE!" She was fighting against the guard who was trying to pull her out of the immediate danger, yet she didn't care. "I could've been the only one to love you despite the monster you really are, and you abandon me EXACTLY how you PROMISED you wouldn't, you traitor!" There was one tear, only one, that slid down her face. It was more in fear than in sadness. "I hate you!" she let out the most blood curling scream she could muster as the guard towed her towards the exit.

She saw Agent Coulson run towards her, his lip busted from where she had kicked him in the face once she heard the alarms go off. He turned her around on her heels and pushed her the rest of the way out of the building just as the structure started caving in.

* * *

She was shoved into the dirt ground just outside the perimeter of the now demolished S.H.I.E.L.D camp by the guard that was guiding her out of the building.

_This has got to be the most humiliating thing I've ever had to go through_ she thought as she coughed from the dust that she had just inhaled.

"Well, you're in a lot of trouble, Miss." Agent Coulson crouched down to where she was lying face down in the dirt.

"Piss off," she snapped, struggling under her binds.

"Oooh, strong words for a woman who's now tied up, caught at the scene of the crime," Coulson retorted. "Alright, once we know the scene is safe, I'll need someone to go in and retrieve the Tesseract. We can't lose that," he ordered. "You've got quite the kick there, miss. Unfortunately, not quite strong enough to actually bring me to the floor."

She tried to shift her weight so that she could break free from her captors, but she felt a strong foot hold her down by the middle of her back. She cursed under her breath and turned around to see who it was. It was the same man that was at Jane's little camp helping with her research. She cocked her head to the side when she noticed just the slightest hint of a sapphire blue hidden away, just barely detectable to her eye before it disappeared completely.

"_Have I incidentally put you under my mind control?" _The statement Loki had made just a few days ago echoed in her mind over and over again as she looked away from him. Maybe, just maybe, he knew what he was doing.

_He still betrayed you, Orthani,_ her conscious reminded her._ Look where he's gotten you. You're a slave of the government now. He's left you in hell, and all after lying to your face for all this time._

"Who are you?" Agent Coulson's voice snapped her out of her daze.

"Who do you think I am?" she snarled.

He smiled and stood up. "Oh, Nick's gonna have a ball with you," he chuckled, snatching her up off the ground and sitting her down properly so that she wasn't inhaling the earth. "You've cause us more than just a few small problems, Miss Mynx. At this point, I'd be surprised if Nick even gives you a plea bargain. You've got maybe three hours to live, I'd say," he told her and then walked in a different direction to call for helicopters to come and rescue the now stranded workers that had managed to get out before the building collapsed.

"Good. I'd rather be dead than alive when that asshole comes back," she muttered under her breath, scowling at the ground.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything," she shot back quickly.

Coulson eyed her with a strange, confused look as he quickly dialed the number of Director Nick Fury and held his cell phone to his ear. "Nick? We've got a slight problem here."

* * *

**A/N:**Sorry, I didn't like how this was all coming together yesterday, so I took an extra day to really work on it and get it to where I actually liked it. I'll have another one up tomorrow that'll make up for the fact I took Sunday off. x) Possibly . Though I actually have another chapter already written and I'm working on another at this very moment, so I should be able to get ahead of myself a bit.

As always, don't be a stranger, and I always love reading reviews!

**LJ-of-Asgard**: All I can say is not for long. =P


	10. Chapter 9: The Price of Freedom

"Do you have any idea what you've just stepped into, Miss Mynx?" Nick Fury stood in front of a metal table that Orthani was sitting behind, her hands still tied behind her back.

She remained silent, refusing to speak to him, though she did throw him a nasty look.

"You've just landed yourself on S.H.I.E.L.D's radar, and let me tell you, you might not be too happy that you got yourself on our bad side," he leaned up against the table. "What were you doing on our base?"

"What's it to you?" she snapped at him.

"You just trespassed on top secret government property. Unless you want to find yourself locked up for the next twenty years of your life, I suggest you start talking if you want to cut yourself a deal," he said flatly.

"And what does that deal entail? Being a slave to your dirty work?" she scowled at him.

"If that's how you want to look at it," he shrugged, taking a seat in the chair on the opposite side of her. "Look. It's either you tell us what you were up to and become a partner here at S.H.I.E.L.D, or you get thrown in a federal prison. It's your choice here." His eyes were more than sincere, in the harsh 'Nick Fury' kind of way. "But let me tell you this. If you choose the latter, you will wake up every day in a dirty cell, with hardly enough food and water for you to live off of. I will make sure that everyone in that place thinks you were a snitch and a fool, and I will make your life a living hell. Do I make myself clear?"

She stared him down. "So you are basically giving me no choice?"

"Hey, we have an outstanding task force here at S.H.I.E.L.D. You earned a spot when you took down 5 guards single handedly." He was practically throwing a sales pitch to her. "Sure, you aren't as well trained as our elite, but they're also the freaks we call heroes."

"And let me guess, they were all once sitting in the same chair I'm in?"

He gave a sideways smirk. "Actually no. Most of them came to us," he kicked back in his chair. "Well. One or two. Either way, it's still a better seat than you're sitting in right now," he chuckled. "Now, why don't you tell me what you know about our project you so rudely interrupted?"

She sneered at him. "I don't know anything about it besides it's a giant glowing cube of energy," she rolled her eyes.

"Well that's a start."

"I don't feel like going to prison. So kill me," she said sarcastically.

"How'd you get it to open?" Nick crossed his arms over his chest.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure you do. You were the only one there. Who could've opened that thing up if it wasn't you," he said condescendingly.

_What? I wasn't the only one there…_

She gave him a confused look. "I was the only one there? You didn't see anyone else with me?"

Nick shook his head. "You were the only one. Security footage backs it up," he exhaled.

_What?_

"I don't know. It opened itself," she said, smartly deciding that she'd rather not sound like she was crazy claiming that she had an Asgardian God with her when she broke in. They'd probably assume she was lying and wouldn't give her a bargain out of jail time.

"So you just walk into the room and it just decides to open itself," he said apathetically. "What, don't tell me you've got powers too. You some sort of magician?"

She hid a smirk. "I'm 100 percent human. I'm not going to be some addition to your little freak show you've got going on, Fury."

He chuckled. "You'd better hope your blood tests say that, and two, you aren't good enough to even be considered for a spot in what you called my 'freak show.'"

She shrugged. _Good. I don't want anything to do with it._

"You've got anything else to say? Cause right now, I'm not convinced enough to hand you a get out of jail free card." He tapped his fingers against the table rhythmically. "You mean to tell me you didn't know that thing was a portal to another realm? And yet you waltzed into that room and it magically opened for you?"

She nodded. "Interesting you know about other realms in this universe. How'd you figure that one out, a book?" she taunted.

"We had an encounter with Thor, the god of Thunder a couple months back," he said rather proudly. "We've since then realized that we aren't alone in this world. Now how about you? You seem unfazed by this."

She gave a coy smile. "I know some people."

He stared her down intently. "I'll send Agent Coulson in within the hour with a consent form saying that you will become a part of the S.H.I.E.L.D agency in exchange of your freedom," he said as he got up from his seat. "Though I should warn you, if you so much as cross us or disobey our orders, we have the power to nullify that contract and send you to prison so fast, you won't even have time to get your act straight," he mused.

"So that's it then? I sign my life over to you like it's no big deal and I get to jump right into the operations?" she asked, slightly amused by the lack of protocol.

"Oh no. It isn't that easy. You've got about 6 months of rehab and specialty training. You might not be Avenger material, but you will be one hell of a special ops combat agent by the time they're done with you," he said as he walked out the door.

_Oh good. I've always wanted to learn how to parkour._

* * *

Loki made contact with the ground, once again becoming familiar with the aches and pains of a hard landing. He groaned and stood up slowly, blinking quickly to regain his vision.

He felt himself being snatched off the ground, and his reflexes kicked in. He put an ice dagger into the chest of whatever was holding him off the ground. Whatever it was screeched in pain as it dropped him, and he scrambled to get to his feet. He looked around him to see that he was quite literally surrounded by these…things. He couldn't even describe them.

He summoned another one of his icy daggers to his hands. "Unless you plan on seeing your untimely deaths here today, I demand you take me to that you call your leader," he held it out towards his opponents. The other one he had just stabbed screamed in pain once more. "DO IT! Unless you wish to join him!"

These strange beasts looked at each other, then turned back to him before easily knocking him to the ground with one swipe of their limbs. He was instantly knocked out, and they dragged him towards whom they called leader.

* * *

Orthani was left in that interrogation room for what seemed like ages to her. They still had her hands bound behind her and she was already starting to feel her fingers go numb with the lack of proper blood flow to them.

She exhaled a low growl and put her head down on the cool metal table to shut her eyes. She couldn't believe she had just sold her soul to the devil known as S.H.I.E.L.D just to avoid ending up in the place both her parents had ended up.

_Wherever that bastard ended up in, I hope he rots there, _she thought to herself. She didn't care what his reasons were behind it, all she cared about was the fact that he hadn't even told her his plan. If he was planning on leaving her behind, he couldn't even had bothered to tell her? She might've not been put in this situation if he had the decency to inform her beforehand.

And they had kissed. He knew more than enough that she had agreed to continue on with him because she realized she actually had feelings for the man. Yet, he still managed to deceive her and abandon her in the worst place imaginable in her eyes. So what, did that kiss mean absolutely nothing? Was it a ploy to get her to continue helping him until he didn't need her anymore? Was that what this was? Ditching her last second because she was absolutely useless to him now?

She growled and kicked the table leg in frustration. Maybe he never cared. Maybe this was all just a scam so that he could use her to get to what he was looking for quicker than if he was on his own. It was sure turning out to look that way. He had been so protective at some points though. He sent her off for food, knowing she would have died of starvation if she hadn't. What of that kiss? That connection was something not even a God could fake. It couldn't have been something that was just made up in her imagination. She couldn't be absolutely sure of what his intentions were, and she had a feeling she was about to be driven insane trying to find out for herself.

"You're a lucky woman, Orthani Mynx," she heard the voice of Agent Coulson say as the door to the interrogation room opened.

_Yeah. Lucky is definitely what it's called._

"Nick isn't really known for letting little fallouts like this slip through so easily," he continued, closing the door and taking a seat where Director Fury once sat. He had a manila folder in his hands full with at least 10 pages of paper all stapled in a bundle. "Can someone cut her lose please so she can sign these?" he called out to the agents hiding behind a one way mirror.

She kept her head down as she heard the door open and heard footsteps approach her. She felt the binds release and then heard the person that had freed her exit the room and lock the door.

She violently stood up, the chair she was sitting in flying back and hitting the wall from the force. She towered over him and glared at him, a furious face adorning her features. She could tell that the agents outside had frozen in anticipation, waiting for her to make one more move towards him so that they could storm in and make her stand down. Nick was watching her as well, noting that she would be the type to retaliate the moment she was set free if he didn't watch his moves.

It was like everyone, including the room itself, was holding their breath and completely frozen in time. Even the air was still.

"Sit down, please." Agent Coulson said calmly, not even so much as flinching at her sudden menacing attempt to scare him.

She didn't move at first. She just glared at him with a pure hatred that even Loki would've been afraid of had she ever given him such a look. Agent Coulson didn't flinch, nor was he fazed by her. She couldn't win here. She might've been able to scare everyone else with intimidation, but here, everyone was unaffected by it. She couldn't win.

She forcibly grabbed the chair that she had just about flipped in her violent stand and shoved it towards the table. She angrily sat down and scooted the chair up to the table.

"Thank you. Now, I'll need you to sign here, and this just states that…" Agent Coulson began to explain what the entire agreement said, going over important details and deals that would be prudent for her to follow. He rattled on and on, pointing out places for her to initial and sign while explaining what each thing was for.

Since she had no other option, she began signing away. Once they had gone through the entire thing, Agent Coulson stood up from his chair and two men unlocked and walked into the room to take her to processing where she would practically be stripped from her current attire and put into a more S.H.I.E.L.D like attire. Agent Coulson escorted her there as well.

"I'd better be able to choose what I get to work in," she growled, no longer trying to fight her unavoidable fate.

"Eh, maybe after your boot camp rehab. For now, you're wearing S.H.I.E.L.D uniforms until you get your act together," he said with a straight face as the two guards led her into the more grim side of the facility. It was like a holding bay where they were already storing all of her daggers and such they had confiscated off of her when they caught her, as well as everything they had found in the SUV that was left at the scene. They would hold all of that there whilst she was transported to their own special training facility, where they would improve her already impressive fighting skills to fit what they wanted her to become. They would also hold her there until she became their cooperative ally without any symptoms she would resist their command.

She was theirs now. She had to learn it.

* * *

"What dares enter these parts of our rule?" a dark, gruffly low voice boomed in his own tongue, which echoed throughout the main center of the ship as the creatures that had captured Loki walked to their master. They practically threw him down at his feet, not even bothering to be careful.

"I am Loki, of Asgard," Loki spoke, hauling himself off the ground and standing up as if his dignity still lived in this situation. "And I have come to make to you an offer which you cannot refuse."

Thanos gave him an apathetic look and then turned to the one who stood by his side. "Have you heard what this fool has spoken? He wishes to make an offer," Thanos again spoke in his own tongue, laughing at the petty Asgardian God standing before him. "Tell me, Loki of Asgard," he this time spoke in the language which his proposer was, "what has brought you to such a dark realm so far away from your home." His words were thick, menacing, and dripping with the urge to simply kill this trespasser on the spot. He was dressed up in full armor, not of their realm at all, and to approach them with such disrespect was a dangerous move.

"I have found something that I believe belongs to you," Loki smiled, not even phased by the one who stood before him. "In fact, this is how I landed on such a desolate place. Something the human race has claimed as their own," he spoke to intrigue them; hook them into a binding contract they couldn't resist.

This was a time he absolutely adored his silver tongue abilities. He could sweet talk even the meanest of enemies into being his ally.

"What is this you speak of," Thanos' voice dropped its humor.

"Ah, what was it they called it. Tesseract?" He played his cards close to his chest, yet he decided he was to come off as such a sly persona that they wouldn't catch on to his overall plan. "They have your relic."

"Silence!" Thanos boomed, causing the one who sat beside him to flinch.

"As you wish. I came here with the intent to help you see to its return, however, should you resent me, I shall leave immediately," he swiftly turned to head out the exit.

"Halt."

Loki smirked as he stopped walking.

"What is it you seek, Loki of Asgard."

He turned back around to face Thanos with a wide, deceptive smile on his face.

"An army." His smile fell to a sneer. "I plan to conquer this so called Earth and proclaim myself their King, though I cannot do so without an army." He slowly started walking back to where he originally stood. "As you can see, I have been cast out by my own people. I have no army, however, shall you grant me this, I shall return to you your precious relic to its rightful place."

Thanos eyed him carefully. "You have no knowledge of the power of which the Tesseract holds," he growled, staring him down like a pack of wolves.

"Then let me learn," Loki replied without hesitation. "Teach me of its power if so is required to give me command over your…kind." He turned and eyed the strange looking creatures that had dragged him in.

"You make quite the offer for someone who has walked in defenseless." Thanos narrowed his eyes and studied the Asgardian God. Something behind Loki clicked in its own language as to defy the master's statement, and Thanos' eyes darted to the source. "Sorcery, you say?" His eyes landed back on Loki.

Loki let out a smirk. _Kill one, they shall fear you from that moment on,_ he mentally triumphed.

"Let me lead you into war against these foolish people, and I will return to you the Tesseract," he put his hands behind his back and puffed out his chest proudly.

"In exchange for your rule over these you call humans?" Thanos stated warily.

Loki nodded. "Such a simple transaction really."

He was still being studied by Thanos, who wasn't really going for the idea. "Your eyes deceive you, Loki of Asgard."

Loki didn't even flinch at the accusation. "Why would I try and deceive you? Here I stand before you without a single weapon drawn, without any warrior at my side to assist me. If I was a fool enough to attempt to deceive you, I would have done so not alone," he lied as if he had been lying his whole life. "I cannot best an entire race such as yours alone, even being the extraordinary sorcerer I am. It is a fool's mistake to walk into such territory as yours with the intent to deceive."

Thanos watched him, still rather wary about this stranger walking into these chambers and speaking of a bargain that would return such a powerful object to their possession. "We shall see of where your allegiances lie, Loki of Asgard," he stated as a final judgment. "Shall you receive the knowledge of the Tesseract and fail-"

"I never fail."

He was thrown across the room by one of the horns on his helmet.

"Shall you fail, you will be punished for your treason," Thanos glowered over him after tossing him aside for interrupting him. "For now, you must learn of the Tesseract and its unyielding power. Should you not abandon your bargain and proceed to lead us to war, we shall then see who is deceptive."

Loki remained quiet this time, but he never did wipe the smirk off his face. "So is it an agreement, then?" he asked, getting somewhat cocky when he knew Thanos was through speaking.

He was eyed suspiciously. "For now." With that, Thanos turned quickly to return to his seat. "Chitauri!" he began speaking in his native tongue. "You shall obey the one who has been delivered to us today, for he claims he shall restore the Tesseract to its true home. For he shall in time be known as…your master!" he delivered the speech with a finesse that made the strange creatures chatter in agreement.

Loki smiled, overly proud that his plan was working flawlessly.

"Other!" Thanos snapped, quieting the room with a single roar. "You are in command here. Watch him. Make sure he doesn't attempt to cross us," he growled, returning to his throne before being enveloped by the bowels of the ship that served as his safe haven.

* * *

**A/N: **Thank you so much for all the lovely replies! I can never thank you all enough! As always, don't be a stranger! =) Forgive me if I sound ignorant in the overall comic book lore that is known as Avengers. It's been forever and a half since I've read them and I can no longer get my hands on them . So I'm doing this off of memory.

To **Alittleteapot:**Shhhh! Spoilers! xD And of course, I have to sort of follow the already concrete plotline of the Avengers movie, so you were right about the Thanos bit. Though when it comes to Loki and Orthani's relationship in general, you're sort kinda way off. x) But shhhh, don't spoil it! It'll be worth it, I swear.


	11. Chapter 10: Pet Project

"How is she doing, Agent Coulson?" Nick Fury stepped beside the agent, who was staring into a window that had the detention area where their newest member was being held. She has already completed five and a half months of this torture, and she had a half a month to go before they would even consider letting her out to assign her to a post.

"I wouldn't know," Coulson sighed. "You'd have to ask her."

Nick furrowed his brow. "Meaning?"

"She never talks. Not even mutters something under her breath. She's practically invisible until she gets into combat training; then she turns into this silent assassin," he began explaining. "She's practically like a monkey, for gods sakes. She can maneuver around a room without making a sound, and that's from experience I gained while going inside and watching her," he shook his head. She had gotten good, she was just totally against the idea she had to work with them and had become antisocial with everyone she interacted with. "She hates it here, but she's already been broken to protocol. She hasn't tried to make a break for it in the past month like she used to."

Nick nodded. "Let me in to see her then," he ordered, moving past Coulson to the giant metal door that led to the detention area. He was buzzed in, and he pushed the door open to enter the place.

It was almost like a prison, all except the room Orthani was staying in, which was the only thing that was of five star hotel qualities; though the door was just a prison gate, which sort of made the quality of the living quarters look less appealing.

He went into the locked room off to the side, having Coulson buzz him into that room as well in order to retrieve a few things of hers. Once he had found what he was looking for, he exited the room and had Coulson lock it back.

He walked down the hall and turned into the room where she was training her combat skills up to more than even an assassin would have, and opened the bared door to step inside. It was a rather large room, big enough to hold two family cars inside if there was a way to get them in that room. Though the ceiling was much taller, at least the length of a football field in height with rafters up at the top where the bright stadium-grade lighting was hung.

It looked to be completely empty.

"Miss Mynx, might I have a word?" he called out, knowing very well she had to be in this room since it was the only one she was allowed in without an accompanied trainer and her living chambers didn't show any signs of life. He closed the metal door behind him.

He heard a faint rustling of clothes moving before he had a blur of black fall from the sky to land right in front of him. She had jumped down from the rafters and landed on her feet as low to the ground as she could get. How she didn't break a foot was beyond him, and the fact she was still wearing the S.H.I.E.L.D cat suit and hadn't yet destroyed the emblem on the side was even more astonishing to him.

"You know, jumping around in those heels will land you with a broken ankle one of these days," he rolled his good eye and walked past her to the center of the room. He had found it odd when Agent Coulson came to him with a request from her for heeled boots that wouldn't make a noise when she walked, yet could easily have the heel become flat like regular boots for when she was up in the far reaches of the ceilings of rafters and such. She used the heels more for combat, nothing to her being more satisfying than sinking her heels in someone's stomach if they got on her nerves, though it prevented her from her silent maneuvering around a room like a jungle gym, so she had Coulson request a specialized item so that she could have both at once.

She tapped one heel on the ground, and then the other, which caused them both to unlock from their position and slid up to become a part of the back of her shoe, and the support from the heels shifted to where it was now lying flat instead of arched. The heeled boots had rather effectively become flats, and no one would've even noticed the single moving part unless they looked really hard at it. All she would've had to do to reengage the heels would be to stand on the balls of her feet, causing it to all snap back into shape.

"You've seemed to have gotten past the rehab bit of the training rather quickly, Orthani." He turned around and had to contain himself from jumping when he realized he was right there behind him. "Geez, don't do that. You don't want me to deck you out right here," he warned her. She nodded. "If you truly are ready to start working alongside us, I can arrange that, but if you act up, you will be sent back here without a second thought," he cautioned her, lecturing her like he would a child. "I do have a station for you to work at with Clint, who's been watching over the very object you tried to steal from us."

_Not steal. Just look at,_ she corrected him in her mind.

"Prove to me I can trust you in not causing chaos, and I'll send you over there within a week after working here with us. Got it?" His words were spoken seriously.

She nodded.

"I believe I have something of yours. A few somethings, actually," he told her, pulling out three of the 9 daggers they had confiscated from her at the beginning. He had gotten her the nicest ones he had as an offering of peace and loyalty to her. He could've given her the tiny and crappy ones, which would've told her that he knew she was dangerous and he was holding her back; but instead this was like he was letting a dog off its leash and trusting it to still be as obedient as it would be if the leash was still hooked to its collar.

"You are now Agent Mynx, Special Ops. And unless you want to keep that regular uniform, I suggest you get my second in command to hand you your new uniform," he said in a softer voice. "We thought we'd give you something a little more fitting for your style, since you've taken to flying all over the place like smoke in the wind," he said to her, walking towards the exit and her following him reluctantly. "With this thing, he claims you won't even be audible, running around the way you do," he said in a lighter mood, this time more humorous.

And he was right. She had tight, unpolished black leather pants that her knee-high boots fit over, a top that cut off near the bottom two ribs so that she wouldn't make a sound when she would twist her way through a tough spot. As anything S.H.I.E.L.D custom made, it had its appeal, not to itemize her as a relic, but to make her appear more intimidating since she was on the short side and rather tiny. She had absolutely no arm protection from any kind of sleeves, but she did have those famous leather hand guards that cut off at her knuckles to protect her from the blades of her own daggers and a belt that she could secure them to. Nick figured that she didn't really need much armor or protection like Agent Romanoff or Clint did since she was more of a stealth fighter. All she needed was something to make her silent when she walked.

_Yep. I've become just another S.H.I.E.L.D pet project, _she thought to herself when she was finished putting on her new getup. _Of course, I was just the same in Loki's eyes, but the irony is tragic_. She shook her head and put her hair up in a ponytail to keep it from getting in her eyes. She followed Nick out to the main deck, the only thing she was happy about being the fact that she had to admit the outfit did silence any sound she could've made just by walking. She rather liked being invisible.

When she and Nick got to the main deck, he turned around to address something to her, though she had already vanished.

"Agent Mynx?" he called out, causing some of his workers to look up and stare at him with a strange look.

"What?" she spoke for the first time in four months.

He looked up to find where the voice came from. She had already made her way up onto one of the beams holding the ceiling up above their heads.

"Alright, I was gonna say you could sit with me at my desk, but if you aren't gonna get in trouble or get in the way up there, you can do whatever you bloody well want," he shrugged, slightly shaking his head. He wondered if this whole 'fly on the wall' deal she had going about her was actually going to pay off.

"Thank you, sir." _I'll just go and vanish into a corner as always._

"And keep your earpiece on. I'll let you run around as long as you don't cause problems, but if you don't answer me when I call you, we'll have some problems," he lectured her before turning to head to his desk.

_At least he doesn't treat me like an animal like the rest of them do_ she thought. That was the only reason she had become so reclusive, because suddenly she was turned into a monster in the eyes of everyone else at S.H.I.E.L.D. She was already alienated by them, just as she expected when she first saw Loki leave her behind. She wasn't their ally to most of them, she was just a delinquent turned good and completely untrustworthy.

_Ah well. Life moves on,_ she sighed as she silently scaled the beams to the highest perch and watched everyone from above like she wasn't even there. _It's a fate I have brought upon myself, unfortunately. Might as well use it to my advantage._

* * *

"You look to have become weary, Asgardian," The Other clicked at a tired Loki, who stood on the bow of the ship he had been taken to those few months ago. Thanos had once again disappeared to his own isolation deep within the ship, Loki knowing he wouldn't appear again unless something went terribly wrong.

"You are mistaken, in that matter," he spoke fluidly, simply staring out into the black abyss outside the ship. "Have you come for small talk, or are you here on business," he turned on the balls of his feet to face the leader of the Chitauri. His cape swished around his feet gently.

"Thanos isn't happy with your delay," The Other growled, approaching him menacingly.

"Thanos was the one to require me to unlock the powers of the Tesseract before storming into a realm you have yet to see," he retorted, ignoring the Other's attempt to intimidate him. "Besides, your army is far from strong enough to survive against any sort of strategic attack against the human's strongest forces," he exhaled, knowing well enough that S.H.I.E.L.D alone would be able to wipe out the undisciplined army easily. "We mustn't haste. In due time, the Tesseract shall be returned to you, but for now, you must leave me be," he ordered.

The Other grumbled in protest, but he knew he had no quarrel with him. He had practically been shown the exact location of the Tesseract, so he couldn't deny his alliance. He just had to grunt along and listen to his wishes. He left him to his own.

When he heard the door shut, he looked over his shoulder to make sure the Other was actually gone. When he saw that he was, he raised his fingertips to the glass, closed his eyes, and muttered an incantation underneath his breath. Sure, normally his spells didn't even require incantations, but this was more than just a spell.

When he opened his eyes, he saw very faint outlines reflecting in the glass not of the realm he was in. It wasn't enough to actually see what he wanted to reach, but it was a start. It was like a looking glass, using the mirrors of the universe to see into other realms. It was a concept that Odin saw as foolish when he first started looking into it when he was a teen, but here it was, in the works.

He knew he was looking into the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, but he couldn't make out any definite shapes or figures. It was a faint blur, barely visible against the crystal clear glass in front of him. He let a snarl emit from his lips as he snatched his hand away and the faint lines disappeared from view once more.

_Can I not just catch a glimpse of her to ensure she is safe?_ He growled in thought. He stormed off to his chambers where he slept. _Only once would I wish to see if she has let her loyalties die after all this time. _He'd be forced to forget about it…for now.

He caught a glimpse of himself in a reflective surface and he stopped walking. He had dark circles forming underneath his eyes, his hair had grown much longer and he had gotten much paler since he had traveled here. He did look weary and overworked. His eyes had lost most of their shine, if they even had any left when he left Midgard in the first place.

At this point, he really did look like a monster.

* * *

"I thought you said you had fresh blood?" Clint Barton reported to Nick, scanning the main bay area for the supposed newbie Nick had been telling him about for the past week.

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. "She's around here somewhere," he exhaled and looked up to the ceiling for his newest addition to S.H.I.E.L.D. "She's like a ghost around here: she's here, but you just can't see her."

Clint, also known as Hawkeye, looked up to where Nick was looking towards. "You sure she isn't off trying to get into something she's not supposed to be in?"

Nick shook his head. "I doubt it. She's got enough on her shoulders to where if she screws something up, she's gonna have a jail cell right next to her mother's. I think to her, that'd be worse than being forced to work for us," he told Clint, turning around to scan the other side of the bay.

"And you're sure of that?"

"Of course. It's been a week since I pulled her out of that detention camp, and I haven't seen her breaking into a weapons vault or trying to make a break for it, so I think she'll be fine." Nick gave up trying to spot her in such a big area. "I want her with you down at the Tesseract Project."

"Alright, put her with the exact object she tried to steal from us when she landed herself here in the first place," Clint chuckled, not quite understanding the Director's logic.

"She knows something else that she's not telling us, which is why I want her on guard detail with you," Nick ordered. "Keep an eye on her. Don't let her get anywhere within a few feet of it; she opened it once before somehow and I don't doubt she'd try and at least do it again. We can't afford to have this place collapse like the other base we had this stored in, got it?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Alright," he quickly tapped the radio device in his ear. "Agent Mynx, could you come here please?"

There was a moment of silence. "Tell him to move back a few feet," he heard a quiet voice crackle in his ear.

He smirked. "Take a few steps back, Hawk."

Clint furrowed his brow and did what he was told, only to have a woman to jump down from the rafters and land right where he was once standing. He raised his brow.

"Sir?" she answered Nick quietly.

"I want you to follow Hawkeye down to the hanger we have the Tesseract Project located in," he said, practically unfazed by her jumping in from nowhere. "I've told Hawkeye here that you aren't to get within a 5 feet radius of it, seeing as though you managed to destroy an entire base of ours when you managed to get that thing to open. You will also make sure no one touches it besides those who are authorized to, and you will especially keep an eye on that scientist, Selvig," he began rattling off orders to her. "Especially Selvig. Do I make myself clear?"

She nodded. "Inescapably clear, sir."

Nick nodded as well. "Good. Now go on, get going. If I hear you're acting up, I'll have you up here in a heartbeat, understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Come on, Agent," Clint nodded his head in the direction of the way down to the underground bunker. "Time to throw the fresh meat to the lions, huh."

She didn't answer him. She simply followed him across the bay to the hallway they would take to make their way down to the high security area below.

"Well you're a quiet one," he spoke once more when he realized she wasn't speaking at all.

"I have no reason to talk," she spoke without hesitation as they passed through a set of heavy metal doors and walked down another hallway leading straight into the underground bunker.

"Well, you have no reason not to either-"

"Look around you. You don't exactly see people giving me anything else but an evil, suspicious look. They all know what I've done to the operation and that is all they see," she interrupted him before he got any further. "Look, I don't care what you think happened or what you heard happened at that base a while back, but I can tell you it isn't what you think it is."

Hawkeye closed his mouth, knowing better than to stop her.

"I'm no monster. I just chose to get involved with a person I shouldn't have been messing with," she stated simply as they walked into the bunker-turned-laboratory. She gave a quick glance around before spotting a place she could perch, and instead of vaulting herself up there the hard way, she took the stairs to avoid drawing attention to herself.

"I don't think you're a monster. Just misunderstood," he stated before walking off towards his own post he had deemed the Hawk's Nest, where he watched everything going on below him.

Orthani took her place on a metal grate high above the workers heads and watched then pointlessly work and study the alien object in their possession. _Dammit, Loki. You've waited too long to make your move, _she thought to herself while dangling her legs over the edge of the grate. _I've been stuck between two different sides here. I can't keep playing both sides anymore._

* * *

**Bluebell:** Hopefully that answers your question x)

**Lime Toaster Cat:** I've Googled what was important and relevant to the story. Otherwise, I'm just not gonna bother.


	12. Chapter 11: Friendship Strikes

"Oh come on, you can kick harder than that," Clint grunted as Orthani kicked the hand protectors he was holding. This was one of the days that Nick gave them a few hours off than normal in order to get a bite to eat, take a nap, work out, whatever it was they wanted to do which in this case was kickboxing. He thought that after watching a room full of people without much of a real break wouldn't do them well, so he was being courteous and letting them have a few hours off while another set of guards took their place.

"Come on, you're being a wuss," Clint again said when she landed another kick to his hand. "Come on, you've got to have something to be absolutely pissed off at. You stay silent all the time, and you're telling me you don't have any pent up anger."

She kicked harder.

"Better, still not good enough. Come on!" He was egging her on, not very impressed at the fact she wasn't even making him stagger backwards. Every time he yelled at her, he got her to kick at him harder, and she even got to the point where she purposefully kicked him in the chest to knock him to the ground.

"That's more like it!" he smiled as he picked himself up off the ground. "I've got to give it to you, Ghost, you really do pack quite the hit, as long as you actually want to," he chuckled, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

She smiled, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. He started calling her 'Ghost' at least a week or two ago when she started watching the Tesseract with him. She didn't really like the name, but she wasn't going to fight it since it fit her. She had been in a way drifting along through the upper rigging in the bunker they were in without making a sound and without the numerous scientists and workers below her noticing her doing it. That is, until they looked up and saw her doing it, then it was overly obvious, but otherwise she was practically invisible.

"Have you been keeping an eye on Selvig lately?" he asked her as she sat down on the ground to start taking off the hand wraps she had on her wrists.

She nodded. "Is it just me, or has he been acting strange?" she asked after clearing her throat. She never really talked much, and if she did, it was only to those who addressed her, Nick Fury, and Hawkeye. She talked to Agent Hill maybe once or twice, but other than that, she just remained in the shadows in fear of rejection from the teams. That, and she just hated talking to most of these people.

"It's not just you," he sat down beside her and put the hand protectors to his other side. "It's a subtle difference, but he's definitely different," he said as he ran his fingers through his hair and shook out the sweat.

"Eew, gross," Orthani shied away from him. "Look, we both reek enough, I don't need more, thank you," she joked, a slight look of disgust forming on her face.

He laughed. "Sorry."

She burst into laughter. "You aren't sorry! Here, let me just wipe this on your face," she did the same to him, except she wiped her sweat directly on his face.

"Aah! I've been contaminated!" he lunged out of her reach and did a few rolls across the floor before standing back up again. "Jesus, we're weird," he went to help her off the floor.

"Hey, that's your own fault, don't even deny it," she chuckled as she vaulted up off the floor.

"Agent Barton, Mynx!" the booming voice of Nick Fury echoed off the walls of the room they were in. They turned around to face the door where his voice came from and he was indeed standing there at the metal doors. "Get your gear on. We've got alarms going off down below," he stated firmly with a serious look on his face.

The two jumped into action and casually headed to where they had changed out of their normal gear into more casual workout clothes. They both changed back into their gear, of course in different rooms, and then walked out to the main hallway.

"We've got about 5 different alarms going off cause of this thing, and we have no idea what it's doing," Nick briefed them in as he led them down the hall towards the staircase. "No one's touched it since about noon, so human interference isn't the cause."

Orthani and Clint glanced at each other with that look that spoke 'here we go again,' before turning to look straight as they swiftly climbed down the stairs and burst through the giant metal doors.

Machines were beeping and sounding off as people hustled around trying to get the situation under control. The Tesseract was reacting inside its current contraption, moving, breathing as if it lived on its own.

"Sir, we can't shut it off-"

"I know that, idiot. Move," Nick shooed the scientist off before he could say anything else. "Everyone back up! Get away from the Tesseract, please, before something else drastic happens!" he ordered the entire personnel in the bunker to cease. "You two! Get your weapons at the ready. Guards, you too. If this thing opens again right now, this place is gonna explode like the last time, and if it does, we'll need to order an immediate evacuation. Should anything come through that thing, shoot it on sight," he revised his orders midsentence.

Orthani did as she was told and stood beside Hawkeye as he drew his bow. She simply unsheathed her daggers from the belt at her waist and held them to her sides. They both awaited orders as Nick walked around the room. Hawkeye gave a quick glance over to his team member, noticing she had gotten paler than she normally was and her hands were clutching her daggers so tight that her knuckles were turning white.

"Sir, we can't afford to lose another base, let alone the amount of lives we'd lose should this thing open," one of the guards sounded off as Agent Coulson made his way into the room.

"We've got two men at the circuit breaker waiting to cut all power to the base should you want to, Nick!" Coulson yelled over the commotion. If she can't take in power from anything around her, she'll shut herself off and stand down!"

"Hold on, wait for it! She's settling down…" Erik Selvig yelled, trying to get the agency to halt the proceedings in order to save his precious work.

Nick gave it a few seconds, though it seemed like an eternity to those around him.

"Sir?" Orthani yelled to snap him out of it.

"Shut it down! Shut the entire thing down! All power must be turned off!" Nick yelled at Coulson, who immediately began relaying the orders into a radio transmitter.

All watched with bated breath as the delay in the message was transmitted before all power in the entire ship was shut off, and even after that, they waited and watched as the Tesseract slowly started fading its activity.

"Thank god for that-"

"You just put us months behind now! All of that research in those computers: gone!" Erik yelled at the Director.

"We've got backup files on everything, calm down," Nick rolled his eyes; though no one could see him do it since it was pitch black dark. "Agent Mynx, Agent Barton, and Agent Coulson! I'm shipping all three of you and this project out to the Energy Division at NASA. We can't afford another mass collapse should this happen again. Agent Coulson?"

"Sir?"

"Get Homeland Security on the line. Tell them we're gonna need that air ship in the water within the next few days."

"Got it, boss."

"Everyone else, as soon as the lights get turned back on, pack everything up. We're moving you guys off to a safer location so that it doesn't wipe the entire company down should something else happen. Orthani? If I so much as hear one word on any misbehavior from you, I'll shove your head in a blender and turn it on high. Do I make myself clear?"

* * *

She collapsed on the bed in her new quarters, absolutely exhausted from the flight. This had been the third time she had been moved to a different location since she had been captured by S.H.I.E.L.D in the first place. She just wanted to have this all melt away and somehow be able to live a normal life. She wanted to forget all this even happened, forget she was even a part of it now and just go home, or at least a place she could start calling home.

"You looked nervous out there today," she heard Clint's voice come from the door of her quarters.

She looked up at him. "Not for the reasons you think, Agent Barton," she exhaled, resting her head back on the pillow.

"Then for what reason?" he asked, resting against the doorframe.

She sighed. _Loki is the reason. _"Reasons for which you wouldn't understand."

He furrowed his brow, noticing the concerning expression on her face. "Well then why don't you tell me-"

"Because I refuse to have you land me in a jail cell, Clint," she cut him off firmly and sat up on the mattress. "This is far out of anyone's control." She gave him a stare that she was sure would get him to back off.

He didn't. He closed the door to her room and locked it behind him. "It's just you and me here," he said as he calmly walked to the chair sitting halfway across the room. "I'm not gonna run off and yap to anyone," he spoke softly while putting his hands up in defeat. "We all here at S.H.I.E.L.D have backgrounds that haunt us; backgrounds that we don't want to be brought to light. We can't change anything here, but if it has to do with something that I need to be aware of, then I need you to tell me." His face showed sincerity and honesty as he talked.

She studied his face, trying to tell if it was true sincerity and honesty.

"Look, me and Fury are pretty much your only friends here," he pointed out, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward in the chair. "Now if you run to Nick and tell him something that could change your rank here at S.H.I.E.L.D, then yeah, you do end up in a jail cell. However," he lifted a finger, "If you tell me, someone who has just as much red in their ledger as you do, you can trust that I will keep your secret safe. Especially since you managed to keep your past a secret from S.H.I.E.L.D. That's something incredible if you managed to keep secrets from them, especially with how deep you've landed yourself in the ranks here."

She continued searching his face, just wanting one tell that would give her a reason not to indulge to him what she has been hiding since day one at the agency.

"I'm more of your friend than Nick or Phil are at this point. Don't give them something to hold over your head for the rest of the time you're here. Talk to me."

She couldn't deny his sincerity. "Why? Why reach out as a friend when they all see me as the antisocial assassin that they've trained to do their bidding?" she hissed.

"Because technically, you're my partner. You've been assigned to do the same job I'm doing, except I also have the job of making sure you don't suddenly turn on us," he gave a slight shrug. "I'm here for you, and you're here for me. That's how it works here at S.H.I.E.L.D. We've got to have each other's backs."

He made a fairly good point in her eyes. She sighed and crossed her legs on the bed. She leaned up against the wall and went to stare at the ceiling.

"You know that story that everyone knows by now, right? The one about me at the base I managed to blow up?" she reluctantly spoke, still slightly unsure if she should tell him the true story.

"Yeah. That was kinda the buzz around here when you first showed up in handcuffs," he said with a dry sarcasm.

"You know how everyone keeps saying I was alone?" she asked, narrowing her eyes and studying his reaction.

He nodded.

"I wasn't. I never opened that damned thing," she cursed softly, looking towards the door to make sure no one was listening from the outside. "I wasn't alone there. I had been helping someone who S.H.I.E.L.D had been searching for since earlier that summer," she exhaled roughly. "Someone I spent months with and…probably grew to love in the end, but he walked through that portal and left me there that day…" She rushed through the end of that last sentence, obviously uncomfortable with what she had just stated.

Clint's brow creased as his eyes narrowed. That one statement was enough to get him interested in her story.

"He's not of this world. He's from Asgard, same as-"

"Thor?"

"God of Thunder? Yes," she nodded at his guess. "In fact, he was Thor's brother. The name, I can't say. If he shows up later, then you'll know rather quickly who I'm talking about, but until then, unless you know of ancient Norse mythology, then I refuse to speak it."

He nodded. He knew exactly who she was talking about but he let her continue.

"I had become somewhat of a killer for him, developed my own fighting style, learned to play with these little beauties," she smiled as she retrieved a dagger from her belt and started playing with it, doing the same little trick Loki had done when he was lecturing her about the art of fighting with them. "In return, he promised not to kill me, though I had a feeling he never planned to. He also promised he wouldn't leave me to the sharks, aka, you guys here at S.H.I.E.L.D." She let her eyes wander the room quickly before snapping back to Clint's attention.

"So he opened the portal the first time?" Clint asked her, eyes still narrowed.

She nodded. "Clint, he planned on bringing back an army," she said, no, whispered in the softest voice she could manage. "I don't know what to expect from him anymore. I never thought he'd leave me here to you guys, yet he did and without warning. He never said a word to me, he never planned this part out. We always planned for every possible outcome in any situation, and yet he left me without saying why, hell he never told me goodbye for that matter." She gave a half hearted shrug and pulled her knees to her chest. "He once had a heart. He had at least an ounce of compassion in him when he left, but the dark side can do strange things to people. Who knows how he could've changed since he went through that portal."

He nodded ever so slightly. "And that's why you looked nervous out there today." He rhetorically concluded out loud. "You fear him coming back, and since you don't know what to expect, you don't want to see him come through that portal."

She nodded, letting him know he was right. "I was the only person he had, just like you're the only person I have neck deep in S.H.I.E.L.D." She kept her whisper up, just in case. She knew she was probably being overly paranoid, but she had good reasons.

"You don't plan on returning to him if he comes back, do you," Clint's eyes snapped open. The way she had spoken sounded as though she was saying she was neck deep in treason.

She shook her head. "I can't. If I do, I'm dead, and I'd like to stay alive long enough to help him back to his rightful place; in Asgard," she told him. "If he returns, I will be on no one's side. I can't be on either one side or the other. I'd get killed faster than I can claim anyone's side." She gave a rough sigh. "I can't leave S.H.I.E.L.D, but I also can't leave the man who made me who I am today, and that I can't regret even for a second."

Clint nodded his head. "Just promise me you won't ditch us here and run off in another one of your criminal rampages with him, will you?"

She shook her head. "I couldn't even if I wanted to. I have no idea if he just played me or purposefully left me here thinking I'd be able to secretly remain on his side," she snorted in amusement. "S.H.I.E.L.D saw right through that act real quick and broke it like a twig. I just don't want him to think I abandoned him if he really did leave me here for my own safety. If he thinks that, he'll kill me faster than Nick would."

_So she isn't untrustworthy like Nick thinks she is. She's just caught between two sides of the same war,_ Clint thought to himself. _That's why she keeps to herself. It's a never ending battle with those two sides. _

"Will you be ready when that portal opens?" He brought himself out of his own thoughts. "I mean, if he went in with the intent to come out, you'd think he's behind the Tesseract acting up, right?"

She let out a puff of air from her lungs. "I'd assume he is, unless it's whatever he managed to find over in whatever realm he managed to land himself in."

"So will you be ready?"

She stayed quiet for a moment.

"I ask because if you aren't, I'll get you out of there before he shows up. That is, if it is actually him on the other side of that portal. I don't need you turning sides on us just because he manages to sweet-talk you back," he pointed out to her. "If he IS playing you, the second he sees you with that S.H.I.E.L.D emblem on your getup, he'll be trying to sway you to his side with all these rich sounding promises. He's the God of Mischief, am I right?"

She nodded, shutting her eyes briefly to take in that sharp stab of betrayal that hit her just then, then suddenly vanished.

"You need to tell me if you could handle him. If you can't, I'll pull you out of that room faster than he could walk through that portal," he continued on.

She nodded and snapped her eyes open. "I think I'll be fine, Clint." She gave him a weak smile.

"Don't just be saying that out of pride. I don't want him winning over a Class A agent with his charm. I can already tell he's got a hold on you; that's blatantly obvious now that you've told me about this. If you can't handle it, you don't need to be in there when he or anyone else decides to walk through there."

"And what about Nick and Coulson? If I'm not in there, they'll ask questions."

He pressed his lips into a thin line. She was unfortunately right. "Then we'll just make sure he doesn't see you."

She nodded. It seemed like a reasonable plan.

"I'm saying this because you've become like a little sister to me, even though you just sorta glide around without saying hardly anything when most everyone else is around. I've gotten to know you more than anyone else on this team knows you. So don't even deny it when I say it," he laughed as he tried to get out his sentence before she protested. "I've seen what you can do, and I've seen what you're capable of. I've also seen the hurt in your eyes from what whoever this is behind this portal has caused you. I know that if he uses that to manipulate you, then he can win you over and god knows I don't want to have to shoot you in the back with one of my arrows."

She laughed. "If the time comes to where he does show up and I can't handle myself, I'll run and hide myself. Don't go making Fury think you're hiding something for me," she admitted. "Whatever happens, just please don't ever shoot me," she continued chuckling.

Clint nodded. "As long as you stay with us, I think you'll be alright." He gave her a comforting smile. "Besides, like I said, I consider you to be a little sister to me. I don't think I could muster up the guts to shoot you in the back," he chuckled, finally standing up out of the chair. "Oh, don't forget, they'll have the Tesseract set back up in a little over 3 hours, and that's when they'll let us in," he informed her, subtly stretching his back out. "Make sure to be down there when they open the doors."

"Alright, will do." She nodded, drumming her fingers on the sides of her boots.

"Stay strong, Ghost," he exhaled lightly and kissed the top of her head before he started walking towards the door. "I've got your back, no matter what."

"Thanks, Hawkeye." She returned his previous warm smile with one of her own before he unlocked her door and walked out. He closed the door gently behind him.

* * *

**A/N:** To **Thing**: Thanks for the input! So much! That's actually a brilliant discovery that you've brought to my eyes. I never really saw it that way. I'll definitely be thinking of that fact as I continue writing, and hey, if it'll help my story stand out from the rest on this site, I'll gladly take the input to heart. x)

As always, thanks for reading, and don't be a stranger!


	13. Chapter 12: A Call to Arms

"What are you doing!" the Other roared as he entered the main chamber to find Loki once again tampering with things. "Have you forgotten your place here, touching things that are not meant to be touched?" He bellowed as he held some sort of alien weapon to Loki's throat.

"It was a harmless test, Other. Have you forgotten the state of your army? They are in no position to be released just yet, last I laid eyes on them. To open the Tesseract would be foolish, and yet you claim I have no knowledge of what I am doing?" Loki snarled back with equal anger. "It was a simple test, also considered a warning to the humans that they are about to see its true power. Do not come blundering into this hall and question me!" he yelled back, practically spitting on the Other's face.

"Silence." Thanos had returned from his own seclusion once again, and both Loki and the Other drew quiet rather quickly.

"Ah, master, you have come to punish this outsider for his imbecilic infractions," the Other bowed to the floor, automatically assuming what Thanos would say to him.

"Quiet! You know not what this one brings to us, you foolish whelp!" Thanos snapped at his second in command. He looked to Loki as he approached the two of them slowly. "Can you not see it? Feel it? Tell me, Other, what is it that you see before you."

The Other looked into the eyes of Thanos, almost reading his mind verbatim.

"_The_ _Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world: a human world. They wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri, will follow. The world will be his; The universe yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?"_

Loki smirked widely. The Other, however, looked as though he wanted to rip Loki's face clean off.

"You. Come with me," Thanos snapped at Loki, who immediately dropped his smirk. He followed the Worshipper of Death down to the area where he had secluded himself for so long.

"You are ready, Loki of Asgard," Thanos grumbled as he pushed a button in the center of the room. Parts in the floor started moving and a display like case rose from the floor, revealing a golden and silver scepter with a glowing ball of energy locked inside what looked to be a jewel just inside the claw. "This staff has the power to do whatever it is you wish it to. It can control the minds of those around you, it can cause destruction beyond imagination," he carefully took the scepter from its stand with both hands. "With this, you will have control over our Chitauri. It is time for us to go to war. You must not show mercy with this at your side, Asgardian."

He went to give Loki the scepter but then took it back as he reached out for it.

"If you fail us, you will not live long enough to see the light of day," Thanos threatened, making Loki drop the arm he had reached out to grab the magnificent looking staff.

"I will not fail you."

He was finally handed the scepter in approval. "They will follow when you are ready."

Loki let his infamous smirk curl across his lips. "Soon. Very soon."

* * *

Orthani headed back to her living quarters at the station, absolutely exhausted after her watch with the Cube. She was to head back, take a quick shower and get a little caffeine in her veins so that she could take over while Clint went to do the same thing. She hurried through her short, yet unfortunately very cold shower and then forced down an energy drink so that she would stay awake until she got a chance to catch a quick nap, and then she glanced at the clock on her bedside table.

20 minutes. She had 20 minutes to spare.

She exhaled and went to sit on the edge of her bed, also removing the daggers she had strapped to her belt off so she could lay down. She closed her eyes briefly before snapping them open again, knowing very well that if she fell asleep now and missed the time she had to be back in the lab, she'd surely have Nick at her throat. She sighed and sat back up and held her head in her hands.

_Why can't I just leave and never come back _she started thinking to herself. She knew thinking like this would probably land her in trouble but she couldn't help it. _I don't want to be a part of this anymore. I just want to go back to my little remote house and stay away from this all like I should have in the first place. _

She shook her head. That was a bad thought to begin with. She couldn't regret her past decisions due to the fact she had met a man who had shown her more than what she could've ever dreamed of, and on top of that gave her a special position at his side because she managed to exceed his expectations of her. She sighed. _Dammit, Loki. I'm not ready for this._

Suddenly, her mirror placed over the dresser near the back wall shattered, making her jump and swirl around to face it at the sudden loud noise it made. She stared at it in terror, not knowing exactly what had caused it to break so violently and how. It didn't actually break like she thought it did at first; it only had cracks that all led to a certain spot in the upper right hand corner. She slowly got up off her bed and approached it, catching a flicker of green disappear in the far corner.

She froze. She didn't know what to think, seeing as though she wasn't even really aware of what she just saw.

_I think…that I'm going to go and relieve Clint of duty a bit earlier than expected…_

With that thought, she quickly grabbed her daggers and rushed out of her room, quickly clipping them to her belt as she swiftly walked out the door. She walked briskly towards the lab, her still somewhat damp hair hanging in strands in her face, most of the ones in her face being shorter than the rest, and the longer strands never escaped from behind her shoulders.

"Clint, buzz me in, will you," she spoke over her earpiece to her partner as she neared the metal doors.

"Why? You still have 15 minutes on your break?" his voice crackled in her ear.

"I've got to talk to you. Now, preferably, than later."

She heard him pause. "Alright. Come on in."

The metal double doors gave an audible buzzing sound as she was let inside. Her key card wouldn't have worked since the system was programmed to only let certain people in at certain times. Since she was on break and not allowed to be let in for another 15 minutes, it wouldn't have allowed her entry until those 15 remaining minutes were up.

All thanks to Nick Fury. Top notch security and little room to spare. She was thankful Nick had given Hawkeye the privilege to buzz people inside should they need to be let in as a way around the system.

She quickly climbed her way up to the Hawk's Nest, not even bothering to take the stairs this time. She simply just effortlessly climbed using pipes, metal grating, wires, anything that was in her reach to make her way up to Clint's location. He was focused on the Tesseract with an intense look, he not wanting to let something slip past him like it did the last time.

"You look spooked, Ghost" he said, not even bothering to look at her.

_Ah ha, very funny, Clint. Spooking the Ghost; clever. _"Well, I just had my mirror crack on its own without warning and without anything even near it, so yeah. Call me spooked," she rolled her eyes and kneeled down beside him. She was talking with a low and quiet voice to avoid drawing attention to herself, seeing as though most people here still knew her as the quiet and suspicious bad-girl-turned-good that never spoke to anyone. Clint's name of Ghost had caught on like wildfire to the point when Director Fury caught wind of it, he started using the name himself.

She saw Clint's brow furrow, but his eyes never left the Tesseract. "Strange…" he trailed off while scratching his lower lip with his thumb, absolutely puzzled.

"Yeah. It kinda freaked me out a bit so I decided I could come in here and relieve you to your break early if you wanted," she offered, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

"Nah, I'll leave when your time's up. I'll probably be back quicker than you were, so you'll need to buzz me in as well," he forewarned her. "I can't let this thing out of my sight for too long. I let something slip by me the last time, and I refuse to let it do so again," he told her.

She nodded. "Alright then. Suit yourself." She went to go and swing herself to her own perch where she had claimed like Hawkeye did, but she felt a firm hand grasp onto her wrist to stop her.

"Watch yourself, Orthani," Clint said, tearing his eyes away from the Cosmic Cube just to speak to her this one time. "It won't be too long now. Everything's gone restless, people are getting short tempered, everyone is tired," he started explaining. "If you can't feel that something is up in the air, then maybe I've just gone crazy from looking at this thing for too long, but if you just stay still long enough and you can feel it too?" he gave her a look that gave her a nervous feeling in her stomach. "Then we know it won't be too long before we see something or someone walk through that thing. So watch yourself," he gave her a quick squeeze on her wrist before letting go of her and returning his gaze to the Tesseract.

"Yessss brother Clint," she pretended to huff like a 5 year old being lectured by their mother and rolled her eyes.

He chuckled. "Seriously though, all kidding aside, just keep a close eye out for anything and everything that might seem out of place or out of the ordinary. Ok?"

She nodded. "I always do," she ruffled his hair. "Now will you go? Take a few extra minutes on break. I'll hold down the fort here for you. You look as if your eyes are about to burst out of your skull," she playfully taunted him.

He exhaled. "Alright. If you insist. Just do me a favor and hang out up here. Don't go running up into the rafters again like you always do. Stay up here," he said as he stood up to stretch out his stiff muscles.

"Ok, but why?"

"Well one, so you can buzz me in when I get back in 10 minutes, two, so you can watch both the Tesseract, the door, and Selvig without having to move around so much," he explained to her.

"Can do, Hawk," she nodded and sat down where he was once sitting.

"Oh, and keep a very very close eye on that thing," he said as he threw a rope down over the edge of the metal rail and tied it off. "It can do anything at any second without warning, so don't keep your eyes off it for too long." With that, he slid down the rope to the ground and went to start his early break, though Orthani knew he'd probably be back before he was supposed to be leaving in the first place anyways.

She let out a close to inaudible sigh and rested her arms on the railing right at neck height and rested her chin on her arms. She went to doing Hawkeye's job, which was watching everything and anything that moved, let alone breathed at that point.

* * *

Loki had done his little magic trick on the same glass once again, trying to get a glimpse of how his loyal assistant was doing. That was all he asked for, was to ease his mind and possibly give him time to rest a little easier.

He had pulled it off this time, better than the last. He could actually make out a little detail in the room set before him, he just couldn't really distinguish that the person he was looking at was who he had been searching for.

_Humans and their vanity, you would think they would clean these things every once in a given set of time,_ he grumbled to himself, keeping his hand on the glass window.

Suddenly, he felt his skull meet the glass as someone pushed him from behind. The connection between the world he was in and the human world was shattered the moment he heard his skull crack against the hard surface. He crumpled to the ground from the impact.

"You think we overlook you, Asgardian, but you are mistaken," the Other's voice growled behind him.

"I have never thought you for once gave me any time to myself, Other," Loki snapped, slowly picking himself up off the floor. "I wouldn't dare do something against your approval, as you know." He gingerly rubbed is forehead where he had been hit. He hadn't actually been injured, just probably a slight bruise, but the hit was enough to make him go a little fuzzy.

"Then why do you not ask for it?" the Other snarled at him. "You cannot go around making bridges between two worlds so carelessly. This is a delicate operation, and in doing such things, you have the potential to collapse our entire purpose!" he roared at the puny Asgardian who stood before him.

"Will you silence yourself?" Loki rolled his eyes and suddenly started glowing gold as he replaced his normal attire with his full armor, cape and helmet included. "I am aware of what I am doing. It is harmless and not to be worried about, let alone important enough to have to ask permission for it," he spoke calmly, walking towards the exit and onto the grounds of the realm itself. He firmly grasped at the scepter in his hand, knowing that it was now the only thing that gave him power in this realm now.

"Do you not see what is happening around you here?" the Other followed him, so close in fact that he almost stepped on Loki's cape with every stride, which he would have been delighted to see him be so suddenly yanked back by the throat.

"You question my ability to observe, Other? How kind of you," Loki replied, a little bit of snark to his voice.

"The Chitauri grow restless," the Other hissed as Loki began to pace back and forth slowly in front of him.

"Let them go at themselves," Loki brushed off the comment, "I will lead them into glorious battle." He smirked smugly to himself.

"Battle? Against the meager might of Earth?" The Other seemed to be scoffing at his determination.

"Glorious, not lengthy," Loki hastily corrected him. "If your force is as formidable as you claim." He dared to taunt his torturer, a light smirk on his face.

The Other growled. "You question us? You question HIM? He, who put the scepter in your hand, who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out, defeated?"

"I was a king!" Loki snapped. The Other had gone too far with that comment. "The rightful king of Asgard! Betrayed!"

"Your ambition is little, born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth to greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil."

"You don't have the Tesseract yet," Loki said bravely, knowing very well he shouldn't have. The Other raised his hand to claw at his face as he quickly moved towards him. "I don't threaten, but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words."

The Other slowly put down his raised arm. "You will have your war, Asgardian," he gave in this little verbal argument as Loki turned his back to him. "If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can't find you. You think you know pain?" Loki could hear him getting closer to him from behind his back. He didn't move, in fear of whatever the Other would do to him this time. "He will make you long for something as sweet as pain!"

He suddenly felt the Other's hand snap to the side of his head and throw him to the side quickly. The scepter fell from his grasps. He reached an arm out for it, only to have the Other step on his wrists painfully.

"You will not escape your fate shall you fail," the Other crouched down and got so close to Loki's face that their noses were almost touching. "Let this be your final warning, Asgardian," the Other spoke gruffly. "Do not step out of line again. For it will be your last." With a hiss, the Other let him go and trudged back to the giant ship, now landed on some godforsaken barren rock.

Loki slowly brought himself to his feet. He readjusted his helmet on his head to where it sat straight, brushed himself off to rid him of the dust and dirt that had gotten on his elegant Asgardian garb when he had been so rudely slammed into the ground. He picked up the scepter and slowly followed the Other back inside, rubbing his neck slightly. He had been so sharply shoved to the ground that his neck had popped and it now left him with an uncomfortable feeling in the side of his neck.

"Do not be mistaken," the Other paused his walking in order for Loki to catch up to him, "we have seen the woman you have searched for, Asgardian."

"And you will not dare lay a finger on her," Loki snapped before the Other even had a chance to finish his statement.

The Other smirked. "Ah, so you have gone soft," he chuckled his taunt. "Do not fret, we have no plans for her," he disregarded the curse that Loki muttered under his breath. "HE believes that she is shrouding your judgment, with all this petty magic and deception for the only purpose of watching her sleep."

"You twist my intentions, Other. Don't dare test me with this, or are you the fool to do so?" Loki growled dangerously.

"Stop your petty threatening!" the Other turned around so quick to roar in his face that Loki flinched. "You have no power here. Not yet! Not over us!" His voice was so loud it echoed off the walls. "You are forbidden to test your experimental magic HERE to where it involved a connection between realms just to catch glimpses of your own mistakes, Asgardian. Know your place here!" And with that, the Other swirled back around to continue walking to his throne.

"Ironic how you treat someone who can bring to you, and has offered to bring to you your own precious objects with such dishonor and insolence," Loki muttered under his breath as he walked in a different direction.

He suddenly felt something grab him by his throat.

"Watch that silver tongue of yours, Asgardian," the Other snarled in his ear. "You walk a very thin line that you do not want to be crossing," he hissed before shoving him away and walking to his throne.

The scepter made a loud clattering noise as it hit the ground and bounced slightly from the impact. Loki again had to pick himself up and dust himself off, almost half humiliated that he would ever put up with such horrible treatment. He knew if he retaliated though, he wouldn't even live long enough to make it back to the Midgardian Earth at all. He gave a small humph of disagreement, but didn't say a word as he continued to his chambers.

"You are not a fool, Loki of Asgard," the Other clicked as he sat down in his seat. "Do not go and make a fool's mistake."

* * *

**A/N:** Just another chapter here, lovelies. Don't be a stranger, and I'd love to hear from you guys! Reviews aren't mandatory (duh), but I'd love to hear some feedback from time to time! I don't bite, I promise. We're almost back to the point where Loki returns, so hang on in there!


	14. Chapter 13: Code Red

"Agent Mynx, can I speak to you for a moment, please?" Agent Coulson walked into the lab and called out rather loudly, causing his voice to slightly echo against the walls. He jumped slightly when he turned around and she had already jumped down directly behind him without making a noise. "Sneaking up on your fellow Agents isn't exactly smiled upon, Mynx." He gave her a condescending look.

"Sorry sir. I can't help it that you've all trained me to become such a silent assassin," she said, a dry sarcasm in her tone.

"Hey, watch it. We're your allies here. Come with me," he gave her a warning look.

"But I can't, Hawkeye just took his break, sir. I'm in charge of watching over the place here," she protested.

"I am well aware of that, but I am also well aware that you two have been cutting your break time short and buzzing each other back into the lab, and while we don't argue with working more than you have to, overriding protocol isn't tolerated here. Don't make me go to Nick about this," he said smoothly.

_Damn him and his knack for catching everything_ she cursed to herself.

"Now, which do you want, me telling Nick you two have been abusing his system, or do you want a chance to defend what I'm about to bring to you? It's either I tell Director Fury, or you have a chance to explain yourself before I tell Director Fury and possibly get a grace card. Whichever you choose," he folded his arms in front of him and watched her, waiting for an answer.

"Where to, Agent Coulson?" she sighed, knowing that either way, she was probably going to get in trouble for something she didn't do in the first place no matter how this played out.

"Smart woman. Follow me then," he nodded his head before walking her out of the lab and down towards the living quarters. "I assume you already know what I'm about to say to you, correct?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Um…no sir?" she gave him a puzzled look as they rounded a corner and approached the door to her chambers.

"You mean to tell me that you had no idea about this-" Coulson swung her door open and put his arm out towards the mirror on the far wall.

"Well, yeah, I did, but-"

"So you admit for destroying property of S.H.I.E.L.D?" he interrupted her.

"No sir! Absolutely not, I swear to you it broke on its own!" she gasped, suddenly aware of what he was trying to do. "I've done nothing to it! It just broke on its own yesterday during my break and scared the living hell out of me. That's why I returned from my break early, because it literally scared the living hell out of me," she stuttered, trying to explain to him what had happened.

"You do know how this sounds, right," he raised his brow at her. "Things just don't break like that on its own."

She bit her lip. "I swear to you, I never touched it," she said, desperately trying to keep her job here at S.H.I.E.L.D. She didn't want to get thrown in a jail cell after she had come all this way. "I'll even take a lie detector test. I swear I did nothing to it," she stuttered.

"And why, if it did shatter on its own, did you not come and tell me or someone else in charge here?" he questioned her, still overly suspicious about her claim.

"I told Hawk! Look, it spooked me out, and I have practically no friends here! If I went to you or someone else, I'd still be in the same predicament I'm in now, yet I would've broken protocol and not been back at my post on time because I would be dealing with these accusations. Please, it seemed unimportant at the time," she was practically begging him now.

"Well is it unimportant now?"

"Obviously not-"

"Right, and you honestly think that I'm going to believe you when you said this broke on its own? It looks like you punched it, how am I supposed to believe this crap?" he said calmly.

"Agent Coulson." A voice not belonging to the either of them sounded off from the doorway of her room. "What's the problem? And why have you pulled my partner from her post? You know that it's against protocol." Hawkeye gave him a stern look, definitely not happy at all.

"She failed to tell me she went on a little rage yesterday and broke her mirror. Now, had she turned herself in ahead of time, we might be a little lenient, but since she hasn't, it's up to Nick to decide where she goes," Coulson stared down Orthani.

"It broke on its own. I can attest to that."

"Can you say that as an eye witness?"

Clint just stared at him, almost as if his eyes were saying 'are you trying to piss me off today?' He walked up to Orthani, unsheathed one of her daggers from her belt and approached the mirror. "Look. Her dagger isn't consistent with the impact mark, right?" he said as he held it up to the depression in the mirror. "Ghost, put a fist up to it, will you?"

She did so. Her arm was reaching up at an awkward angle.

"See, if she had punched it, the glass would be depressed in at an angle, and it isn't. Plus, I don't see a single mark on her wrist that says she's punched a mirror, let alone something to explain why she wouldn't have just done so at arms level. She didn't do anything." He disproved the agent's accusations so precisely that he was left without words. "Now, go ahead and call Nick if you want to and drag him all the way out here just to have me tell him the same thing I told you, and watch him leave here and her still have her job. I'll tell him you forced her to break protocol and made her leave the Tesseract unattended to anyone's eye, and we'll see who he gets mad at. Is that understood?" he growled orders to Coulson.

"And how do we explain a broken mirror in the room of someone we still aren't sure of if she's actually on our side yet? Hm? How is that gonna play out for you then?" Coulson put his hands on his hips.

"Some things are best left unanswered. It broke on its own. Leave it at that. Now if you'll excuse me, the two of us have a job to do which involves the safety of the world, which you've just compromised by the way," he took Orthani's arm and dragged her out of her room.

"I owe you," she whispered as they walked down the hall.

"No you don't. He's just being an ass and covering his tail. He's practically Nick's bitch, but he actually has loads of power here; but I know he won't go to the Director if someone else has something over his head. You owe me nothing," he whispered back firmly as they walked through the double doors, Hawkeye scanning them both through.

"Well I owe you my job since you just managed to save it for me," she retorted, following him up the stairs to the Hawk's Nest.

"No you don't. Natasha Romanoff went through the same thing when I brought her to S.H.I.E.L.D instead of killing her like I had been ordered. I've saved her job a number of times, so don't worry about it. You owe me nothing," he gave her a courteous nod before resuming his place.

"Thank you." She squeezed his arm before she took hold of some metal piping up against the wall and climbed up to her own perch without making a sound.

"It's what partners are for," he smiled, again resuming his stance of not looking at anything besides the cube near the center of the room. "I've got your back, just make sure you're there for mine," he said simply.

She smiled. _I really do owe him, as much as he doesn't want to admit it._ She sat down at her perch and watched the lab below her, keeping a close eye on both Selvig and the cube.

* * *

"Are we ready?" the Other clicked in excitement as Loki approached him in the main hall.

"Soon. Any day now, and we shall open the Tesseract, I shall go through and make a way for your army to follow without such the catastrophic mishaps that occur with the imbalance of power that these humans are too ignorant to discover for themselves," he rolled his eyes as he approached the Other's throne.

"Iridium," the Other muttered. "That is what's needed to keep the portal from destroying itself," he told Loki. He was an impatient one, and he didn't want to have to wait longer for this war to start than he should have if he hadn't divulged the information to him. "It will also allow you to keep the portal open for as long as you wish, and open as wide as needed to get our beasts through without failure."

Loki nodded. "You're gracious enough to provide me with information so late in this plan?" he questioned with a smirk on his face.

"I am impatient, as is Thanos. Do not mistake that for mercy, Asgardian. We do not wish to wait on you as you wander around not knowing how to solve the mystery yourself."

Loki's smirk fell. "I am not ignorant, Other. It would have been discovered within the moments I got there, or have you just spoken to insult my intelligence."

"Silence! We have warned you of the sharpness of your tongue!" The Other roared while swiftly standing up out of his seat.

"You have tortured that who can bring you what you wish for months and expect me to not defend my own? I have been gracious enough to come here promising your people redemption, and yet you leave me to slaughter?" Loki roared right back, pointing the scepter at the Other's throat.

With one swift movement of the Other's arm, the scepter was ripped from Loki's hand and thrown across the room without the Other so much as touching it. With his other hand he grabbed Loki by the throat and slammed him against the wall, his feet dangling off the ground by barely a foot.

"Tomorrow. It shall be done or we shall descend upon you unbearable suffering, am I understood clearly?" the Other hissed in Loki's face.

"You will wait for when I am ready," Loki gasped for air, which was being kept from him by the grip of the Other's hand at his throat.

The Other snarled and threw him away from the wall, he slamming into the ground and sliding a few feet on the floor before he came to a stop.

"You have three days," The Other grumbled as he went back to his throne. "Should you exceed your time, you shall be brought to a slow and unfortunate death," his words came out in a growl.

Loki glared at him in anger, yet remained silent as he went to pick up the scepter and return to his chambers. He would have been willing to do it then had the Other not treat him with such cruelty.

He would wait until the very last second to do so. Not because he was testing the Other's power over him, for he knew that when he had been thrown to his Chitauri the first time he spoke ill against them. Oh no, the only thing he wished for was to return to Asgard and to no longer have a part in this war he would be starting. But he needed the Tesseract to get home, and he needed to talk to his Orthani. He had to tell her that he left her for her own protection. She certainly wouldn't have been able to endure what he had gone through and made it out on the other side.

_Whatever has become of her, it was done so for her own protection, and that you cannot regret, Loki,_ he told himself as he passed the same window he had his skull forced into. _No matter what you see of her when you return to Midgard, it was because she would have died here. Anything that could have happened to her is better than a death such as this._

At that point, he realized he missed her more than he thought he would when he first stepped through that portal. Of course, if she ended up dead by S.H.I.E.L.D's hand anyways, he would never forgive himself, but he knew that if he saw her there at the other end, it would have been worth it. Every strike of pain and agony, every second of mental torture he endured; should she be on the other side, regardless of her allegiance, he would be alright with it. Or at least so he thought at the moment. As long as she was alive, that was all he wished to see.

And thus, the countdown began. As the days passed, he would test the energy around him, waiting until he felt another world barely start to open in front of him before ceasing his activity. He was testing the waters, making sure he could do this on his own. He didn't need to have the Other, or worse yet, Thanos breathing down his neck if he couldn't make this happen.

When it hit the 24 hour mark in human time, he practically held his breath until the time approached him.

* * *

Hawkeye watched as the lab workers went into another round of tests on the Tesseract. It had been two days since it had been left unattended, and since then, nothing felt the same. It was odd, different surely. Yet, there wasn't a sign that it was opening like it did at the previous base.

If there was any change, it wasn't a visible one.

And then suddenly, there it was. A power spike registered on one of the monitors hooked up to the device. It beeped three times before silencing again, but it was enough to get the entire room to stop moving.

"Did anyone get near that?" Selvig asked the now still room. "Step on a cord, anything?"

No one said a word, which meant that no one had done anything to it.

Selvig looked up at Hawkeye, who nodded in a way of silently conveying that no one was near it.

"Well…then we'll treat it as a false alarm. It was a false reading, everyone go back to your stations," Erik told them, and everyone warily did what they were told. "We've got random energy spikes before and it was nothing to worry about. Continue on."

Hawkeye felt the grate beneath his feet tremble, and he knew that Orthani had jumped down from her perch to join him. He had gotten to know her way of moving to be able to tell if it was just the building settling that had caused the vibration, or if it was someone behind him who hadn't made a noise approaching him.

"Hawkeye…" he heard her speak in a dangerous tone, one that sounded both scared and concerned at the same time.

"It's all good, Ghost. If anything's happening, it isn't a portal being opened. She isn't reacting the same way as when that was going on," Clint told her to calm her nerves. He still didn't tear his eyes away from the cube.

She nodded. "Could I join you up here, then? I might be invisible up there, but this is something I don't want to be invisible for," she added, still hoping and praying it wasn't about to turn into a war. She hoped he wasn't just lying to her to get her to calm herself.

"Be my guest. I could always use someone to talk to up here," he replied, patting the grate beside him.

She gratefully sighed and sat down next to him. After a few moments of silence between them, Clint finally spoke up.

"You'll be ready for this, right?" he asked her again in concern.

She shrugged. "I honestly don't know anymore," she exhaled, once again propping her arms up on the rail in front of her and resting her chin on her arms. "I don't know if I should be angry at him, scared of him, or glad he made it back alive," she spoke at a low murmur as to avoid anyone eavesdropping on them.

Clint nodded. "You've got this, Ghost. You've got this," he reassured her with a smile while not tearing his gaze away from the floor. "I've got your back, you know that."

She smiled as well. "And I've got yours, if that's the case," she answered him.

They sat there in silence for the next few hours, only every now and again pointing out something either out of place or not right and made note to the other about it. They were good at communicating, for it was part of their job. If they wanted to save people from a possible catastrophe, they had to be alert and on their toes, which meant they had to talk to each other about what was going on.

Then the machine spiked again, and Clint again told Erik to ignore it and keep proceeding with his calculations as well as the tests he was running, and all was quiet, until it spiked yet again. This time, there were only four people in the room, and they were at least 30 feet away from the thing when it went off.

Erik looked up to Clint for instructions as the machine beeped loudly, this time not letting up after the first three beeps like before.

"I'm putting the place on lockdown, seal this place up and get everyone out of the building, but do not let them leave the property," Clint moved into action, gliding down the stairs to the floor of the lab. "Get Agent Coulson on the line; tell him to call Director Fury and tell him we have a Code Orange, and a possible Code Red here. Ghost!" He suddenly stopped giving orders to people down on the floor and swirled around to Orthani.

"Yes Hawkeye!"

"I need you to get to go find Coulson and help him get word out that we're on standby for immediate evacuation should things get rough over here."

"Got it."

"The rest of you, if you aren't needed in here, get out, and get to a safe distance. Selvig, get your men and see what's going on with this thing."

Orthani had already jumped down and hurried out the room before she heard the rest of Hawkeye's orders, but she could hear him over the radio earpiece. She also knew the only reason he had given her something to do was so that he could get her out of there in case something happened, and that she was grateful for beyond measure. She went to find Coulson, who was somewhere up in the higher floors. A few guards tried to stop her, saying it was for authorized personnel only, but when she told them of the situation, they immediately followed her and listened to her orders.

"Agent Coulson!" she shouted when she saw he was in the main tech room, just hanging up his phone. She assumed he had been on a call with Fury already. "We're on standby immediate evac, he wants everyone out of the buildings, but don't let them leave. Hawk wants us to get the word out," she barked at him.

He nodded and pulled out his radio device. "All units, this is Agent Coulson, we have been ordered to proceed with a lockdown of the premises; no one leaves the area until we have a confirmed clear or a confirmed immediate evacuation. All units must enforce, and will then proceed to standby for my orders. I repeat, get everyone out of the building, proceed outside and then await my orders. We have a possible Code Red here."

He followed her out of the area as the guards beside her rushed to complete his orders. "Come on. You and I are to go outside and wait for Director Fury," he told her, and she reluctantly followed.

"But, what about Hawkeye? And Selvig?" she questioned, half of her wanting to go back to help them.

"This is a dangerous position we're in, Agent Mynx. I refuse to put you back in that lab unless we're sure it's clear, or if Hawkeye calls for you personally. Until then, you'll stay by me. Understood?" he ordered calmly amongst the chaos around him. People were being rushed outside by the guards as well as other agents that were working there.

"Yes sir," she said, both relieved and disappointed at the same time. She didn't want to leave her partner down in such an apparently dangerous situation, but she also didn't want to be down there when whatever was on the other side of that portal decided to finally step through after all this time.

She and Agent Coulson helped lead people outside, where they all just sort of stood around waiting for a call. Everything was surprisingly quiet for a group of people who had no idea what was happening.

That was until Hawkeye came back over the earpieces of the guards and agents alike. "Agent Mynx, I need you down here with me. Everyone else, evacuation of the premises is a go, I repeat, immediate evacuation is in effect; pack everything up and get it out of here. This is not a drill. We've got a Code Red in progress."

* * *

**A/N:** From this moment forward, you'll find some bits are actually movie dialogue fit in around the story. I won't be doing it often, only in scenes that are a necessity to my story, but I'm also trying to stay as close to the movie as possible to make it seem legitimate and real for the readers as possible, but I'm not going to be forcing my character into any movie scenes where the dialogue between characters is already set. That's just being overly obnoxious (in my opinion) and I personally believe a good writer shouldn't ever try and make their characters apart of a legacy such as the Avengers. She's just going to be a character who's like background noise, you can't really tell she's there when it comes to the actual Avengers timeline. I do apologize if this seems boring to you. I'm just giving a sort of back story in addition to what was going on at the time simply for timeline's sake.

Also, I'm going to try and reply to reviews more, so bear with me.

So yeah, from now on, I own nothing Marvel-related. I only own Orthani and her other aliases. (Just for safety purposes =))

**Lime Toaster Cat:** Haha, I didn't mean for him to turn out so evil, actually. It just sorta happened, but it would explain a lot, wouldn't it O.o

**Chelsea:** Glad you liked it!


	15. Chapter 14: The Monster Returns

The alarms were sounded and everyone jumped into action, and Orthani was already making a run for the lab. Some of the guards followed her in, they going in to quickly pack everything up and get it out while the others started rushing people in certain directions to be able to get them out of there and at a safe distance.

Agent Coulson watched her as she ran inside, a hoard of guards following her lead. He would have gone after her to wait in the lab for Nick, but he had to see to it that he got to the location and was able to get inside.

Orthani, on the other hand, had made her way back to the lab and had to slide to a halt. People around her were already packing up the necessary things into cases and left what was needed to keep the Tesseract there was left there.

"Hawkeye! What's going on?" she yelled at him, wondering just as much as the rest of them what was going on.

"We tried switching the power off. Guess what she did," he said, walking back up to his watchtower.

"What?"

"She switched herself back on," Selvig said as he walked past her. "And that means only one thing. Even if we switch the power off to the entire building, she'll be able to switch the power. We have no option here," he said calmly as he started walking back and forth between monitors.

She forced herself to swallow the lump that had just formed in her throat. _This is it_, she thought to herself. _Ready or not, hell is about to break loose._

"Get up here, Ghost, I need your eyes and ears," Hawkeye snapped her from her thoughts and told her what to do. She nodded and parkoured up to him. "Whatever happens, just stay calm and keep a clear head on, got it?" he said lowly.

She nodded. She wanted to run. Her every instinct was telling her to run, but her mind was telling her to stay and that she would be needed.

So she stayed.

"Mynx, Barton," Agent Coulson's voice came over their earpieces. "Do you copy?"

"Yes sir," they alternated saying it to let him know they had heard him.

"Director Fury should be here in two hours at most. If something should happen between now and then, make sure to relay everything to me. We can't have casualties here today, understand?"

"Yes sir." They once again alternated their answer.

"Listen, get down on the ground. Walk around, keep your eyes on everything. Do what you do best; stay in the shadows, and talk to me," Clint ordered her quietly as to not alert anyone below them.

She nodded and took herself to ground level. It was almost as if the Tesseract had sensed her nervousness even though she knew it wasn't possible, but the second her feet hit the floor, there was another massive energy spike.

She stumbled. For the first time since she had become such an expert on maneuvering a room like a freaking monkey, she stumbled. It wasn't much of one, but when she landed with a low profile down to the ground, her boot slipped and caused her feet to barely sweep from under her.

She quickly recovered. She told herself over and over it was because the monitor sounding the alarm had startled her, and that was partially right, but another bit was because she was somewhat scared stiff.

"Hawk, I'm not authorizing these energy readings anymore, yet they keep happening," Selvig said as Orthani lurked in the shadows behind him.

"Shut it down again. See if she regains power," Hawk called out, otherwise remaining completely still.

Erik did as he was told, and yet again, the Tesseract, after having a few seconds of lost power, rebooted everything she was connected to. He threw up his hands in defeat. "I can't stop her. She's misbehaving, and whatever's happening, she's determined to see it through," he said, his voice even portraying his defeated soul. He went back to just monitoring everything that was going on.

That statement gave Orthani an uncomfortable gnawing sensation in her stomach. She was going to watch the world burn with everyone else here tonight, she was sure of it. _This isn't what I was thinking when I said I would help him_, she thought to herself.

She paced the floor nervously, keeping mostly to the shadows of the room at all times as she watched people start moving cases and things out to the awaiting caravan of trucks outside. On the outside she remained calm, but on the inside, her stomach was doing flips. She didn't want this war to start, and if it was inevitable she didn't want to be a part of it anymore. She had helped this person get to the portal in the first place simply because she was tired of being cooped up with nothing to do and the same routine; she never expected to end up where she was today, the threat of an actual war upon them. Hell, she never expected to fall for the man who was planning it all.

She realized that she could very well be caught in the middle between an extreme good and an extreme evil, or at least if what came from behind that portal had actually become a monster.

She sighed. She was overly conflicted and didn't even know where to start sorting the entire thing out in her head.

* * *

"Yes, the time has come!" the Other roared in approval as Loki stood before him, still working on opening the portal enough for him to walk through it.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, there is still much more to come," Loki broke his concentration for barely a few seconds.

"Yes, but this is a step towards victory, and any step is worth reveling," the Other snapped back, causing Loki to smirk.

"The next time this portal opens, pace the release of your army," Loki demanded.

"You have complete control of our army, Asgardian," the Other bowed, finally bestowing full control upon Loki's shoulders.

Loki's smirk widened. "Then when I return, you shall have your Tesseract in your possession once more."

"One could only hope," the Other said as Loki dropped to the ground on one knee and held the scepter with one hand.

This was it for him.

* * *

"Ghost, will you leave? You don't need to be here," Selvig said as he looked behind him and saw Orthani lurking behind him.

"I'm not leaving!" she shouted, removing herself from the dark and walked into the light. Everyone jumped, this being the first real time she had actually spoken openly to anyone besides Clint and Coulson, and it scared the ever living hell out of them at how loud she had just yelled. "I can handle myself, you twit. Stop pretending you can read me like an open book!"

She caught a glint of the unnatural blue flash in Erik's eyes, and it made her freeze. She had forgotten all about the entire theory she had about Loki placing him under a thin mind control up until this point.

She didn't say anything. She already sounded crazy enough, if she started making accusations, she was sure people would think she had developed some sort of post traumatic stress syndrome when in all reality, she just knew more than they did. She kept quiet and instead listened in to the conversation down the hall between the now approaching Nick Fury and Phil Coulson. She saw Erik rush to Nick as he entered the room, and she herself went to disappear back into the shadows.

"Don't you slink away from me, Ghost," she heard Nick stop her. She pressed her lips into a thin line and closed her eyes, mentally cursing to herself. "I might not know where you are, but I know you're here," he called out for her after he paused his talk with Erik. "Report, Agent Mynx!"

She hurried to stand in front of him. "Yes sir!"

"Don't think that I don't already know about you, Agent," Nick stated in a low, harsh voice. She squinted her eyes shut. "Since they're minor incidences, I'll let them slide given the circumstances that we're talking in being so grim, but don't think for a second that I'm letting you off easy, are we clear?"

She nodded. "Yes sir."

"Good. Now if you redeem yourself on down the line, then next time I won't be too quick to judge."

"Yes sir. Of course sir," she muttered quietly.

"Alright then. Dismissed, and as you were. Erik!" Nick swirled on heel to get back to his conversation with the scientist. "Talk to me, doctor."

He sauntered off in Nick's direction, leaving Orthani to stand there alone by herself in the midst of people picking up cases and moving them out. Against her better judgment, she stayed on the ground level knowing very well that if something walked through a portal and started shooting bullets, it would be a bad idea to be up in the rafters. She simply started shadowing Nick, listening to the scientific nonsense she couldn't understand a word of. He then called Clint down out of his nest and had him report in the same way she had to. She zoned out during most of that conversation as well, simply because it was slightly uninteresting to her and she was focusing on the simple task of breathing when something Clint said snapped her out of it.

"If something was tampered with , it wasn't from this end."

Both she and Nick gave him a rather blank but dangerous stare.

"Well the cube is supposed to be a door to the other end of space, right?" he rhetorically asked. "Well doors open from both ways."

It was like it heard them, for not a second after Clint spoke that phrase did the Tesseract start moving and swirling in a field of energy. It gave a sudden surge, and the ground gave a violent but short shake as if it was sounding a warning. Clint grabbed her arm at her elbow as they watched it contort in its place as it once did before. The three of them stepped away from it as it shot a beam of bright blue light across the room to the platform at the end of the room. A ring of blue light formed and was eventually hollowed out to where pure darkness was seen in the center.

All the lights shut off in the lab, the only light source being that bright blue beam from the Tesseract. Orthani watched, absolutely frozen stiff as the ring exploded and sent the energy surrounding it in a wave across the room, and the beam swirled to form a weird dome and then fell slowly back to the platform to form the silhouette of a person.

In the moments it took for everything to settle were the moments she spent cowering behind Clint, afraid to look towards the platform. She grasped onto his arm with a death vice and stayed back behind him, her eyes buried into his shoulder.

"Sir, please put down the spear!" Director Fury called out, which disrupted the silence that had fallen.

_Oh good, Loki didn't have a spear, so we're all good he-_

A sudden noise blared in the room and she felt Nick and Clint jump out of the way, bringing her along for the ride. She rolled behind one of the cement pillars in the center of the room and hid behind it, having no power to deal with someone with an alien weapon.

She used the cement pillar to jump up to a higher beam. She hoisted herself up as another noise echoed off the walls, causing destruction in the form of a blue orb flying across the room. Clint, Nick, and every other person standing in that room had pulled out some form of weapon and started shooting, attempting to stop whoever it was from destroying the place. She took out one of her daggers and peeked around the beam she was hiding from to see a figure fly across the room and smash one of the guards who had a machine gun to the ground. She was about to throw one of her daggers at the foreign alien when she froze as he quickly picked himself up and threw something from his hands. Three guards across the room suddenly fell to their knees, barely any explanation as to why besides what looked to be large ice shards sticking out from their neck.

_Loki._

He looked like a monster this time. His eyes had dark circles underneath them and had sunk in a little, his face had gotten paler and his cheeks were drawn in. His hair was longer, yet still slicked back as she had once seen before. Though he looked darker, more menacing, and his eyes had a sharpness to them that seemed to cut deep into the soul of whoever they landed upon.

She couldn't move, and it cost her. It was like he saw a flitting shadow of her when she darted up to the beam she was standing on, for he sent another charge from his weapon directly at her even though she was well hidden. The sudden force of the charge meeting the cement pillar in front of her caused her to lose her balance and she fell, barely catching onto the beam with her free hand before she fell to the ground and put herself in even more danger.

She forcefully stifled her yelp of surprise and squinted her eyes shut, hoping he didn't catch sight of her. She carefully and quietly put her dagger back in its place and then swung her now other free hand up to hold onto the beam she was dangling from. As the chaos continued, she had to quietly pull herself back up to her hiding place. Right as she heaved herself from her danger, she heard that low, fluid voice she thought she wouldn't ever hear again speak.

"You have heart."

She looked up and saw he had Hawkeye cornered with the scepter up to his chest. She watched as Clint's eyes went black and then suddenly turned a bright electric blue.

_Hawkeye, what are you doing?_ She screamed on the inside as she watched him put away his gun. _Clint, get him! What are you thinking!_ When she realized what had just happened, she clapped a hand over her mouth and swirled around to sit against the pillar, keeping her knees close to her chest to keep a low profile. _He's got Hawk. He hasn't even been here two minutes, and he's already taken one of our top agents…_

She closed her eyes and focused more on not being seen by anyone. She hoped and prayed he hadn't taken Fury as well, for that would be the death of the world as they knew it.

_I could kill him. All it takes is one throwing dagger to the neck and he'd be done,_ the thought flashed through her mind.

Although she knew it'd be her redemption in Nick's eyes, she couldn't do it. She had made a promise to Loki: once she was allied with him, she never would turn on him. Deep in her heart, she knew she loved him a tad too much to be able to live with herself if she betrayed him like that.

She heard movement down below as well as that same strange noise from the scepter that it made when Loki had taken Clint's mind. _Oh great, he's just waltzing in and taking over everyone._

"Please don't."

Her eyes flitted open as she heard his intoxicating voice once again. She didn't dare peek out from her hiding place.

"I still need that."

It was like his voice alone was causing the blood in her veins to freeze, that's how haunting it was to hear his voice again to her.

"This doesn't have to get any messier," she heard Nick say firmly and she almost let a sigh of relief escape her lips. He didn't have the Director, and that's all that really mattered. She held her breath once again knowing that soon, the portal that was swirling above the lab would be caving any minute now if Nick kept stalling. Even though she was practically not even there to everyone else around her, she still couldn't escape without compromising her position. She was trapped, just like everyone else.

"Of course it does." That wave of relief she had was quickly washed away. "I've come too far for anything else."

She squinted her eyes shut, a pang of guilt rushing through her at the statement.

"I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

* * *

**A/N: **Uh, yeah, so there's gonna be some maaaajor spoilers for the movie. Just forewarning, for those who might not have seen it yet.

**Sarah**: Thanks a lot! You're the second person to say something about this being in the movie, and that honestly makes my day. Thank you sooo much.

**SilverTongueLoki:** Haha, what's Twilight? That sounds absolutely atrocious. I hope you are keeping tabs on my story and are reading this at the moment, I feel like I have to explain myself x.x

But seriously, I wasn't aware it sounded Twilight-ish. I kinda want to shoot myself in the head for not seeing the Twilight-ness in that chapter you wrote the review on. It's kinda depressing. x.x Hopefully that didn't take away from the story for you, but if it would give me some credibility, I honestly haven't even seen the Twilight Saga movies, nor have I read the books more than once. So I don't think that was intentional. I dunno, that might bug me to the point that I'll go and change the chapter a bit, oh god. x.x

No, I won't do that. I didn't quote Twilight! Twilight quoted me. xD That solves that problem. Though seriously, I hope you still enjoy the story regardless of that goof on my part. I would hate to lose a reader to an unintentional reference to that series, so hopefully I can redeem myself later on.


	16. Chapter 15: Time to Assemble

If there was any doubt in her mind that it wasn't him the first time, it was certainly erased with that statement.

"Loki?" she heard Erik repeat him. "Brother of Thor?"

_You know, for a doctor, sometimes he can be utterly stupid,_ she thought, shaking her head at the ignorance. Of course, he didn't know of Loki's absolute hatred for Thor, or at least the hatred of having him ruin Loki's chance at the throne.

She heard Loki's annoyed snarl softly tossed towards Erik and it made her smile. She wished she could've seen the look on his face, but she would've compromised her position had she looked out from behind her hiding place. She stayed put against the insistent nudging in her heart telling her to go and make herself known.

"We have no quarrel with your people," Nick said flatly. She almost heaved a sigh of relief. He hadn't gotten the Director. They still had a chance.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

"Are you planning to step on us?"

She had to clap her other hand over her mouth as well. Sometimes Nick's dry humor in a non humorous situation wasn't ideal in her plot of staying hidden.

"I come with glad tidings of a world made free."

"Free from what?"

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you except that in your heart-" She again heard that scepter of his emit that strange noise, and she dared to peek around the pillar. He had taken Erik this time, and Orthani once again caught a glimpse of Loki's face. "-you will know peace."

He didn't look like much of a monster anymore. That look of madness in his eyes had softened ever so slightly, leaving just that shimmer of mischief amongst the sea of emerald.

"Yeah, you say peace. I kinda think you mean the other thing."

"Sir," Clint suddenly spoke, walking over to Loki's side, "Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow; drop a hundred feet of rock on us."

Everyone's eyes turned to the already slowly collapsing portal.

"He means to bury us," he finished his statement.

"Like the pharos of old," Nick snarked back with a hint of a taunt in his voice.

"He's right! The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical," Erik confirmed what Clint had just said.

The sudden gravity of the situation hit her once more and any sense of humor she once had disappeared. She kept an eye on the floor below her.

"Well then."

Suddenly, Clint raised his arm and let out a shot at the Director, knocking him straight to the floor. That time, she couldn't help but let out a soft scream, it coming out more as a whimper since she had both of her hands over her mouth. She jumped and put her back to the wall again, closing her eyes and holding her breath as she heard a band of footsteps start making their way for the exit on the opposite side of the room.

The second she heard them fade in the distance, she jumped down, her feet almost failing her for the second time in one night. She rushed over to the Director, who was slowly trying to pick himself up off the ground.

"Director Fury!" she gasped as she got to her knees at his side.

"Dammit, Ghost, why couldn't you have shown up and helped when I actually needed you to?" he groaned as she helped him off the ground.

"There's a reason you call me Ghost, Director," she said as the lab started creaking under the pressure the portal was creating. "I can't ever show up when you need me to," she smirked as he fumbled for his radio. "By the way, you were just looking at the man who actually opened the portal that day when you guys caught me. If you're wondering whether or not I'm actually trustworthy, consider the fact I didn't just return to the side of the bad guy I was allied with a long time ago. I think this is my redemption, sir."

He stared at her as she spoke and then gave her a small head nod, not even bothering to ask questions. They didn't have the time for questions. "Hill, do you copy!" he shouted over the radio. "Barton has turned!" He and Orthani gave one look towards the now collapsing portal over their heads. "They have the Tesseract! Shut them down!" They both started running for the exit, trying to get up to the surface before the entire building collapsed on them.

Sparks were flying overhead as wires and piping were falling over their heads.

"We've got to get to the chopper!" he yelled over the deafening noise. Orthani nodded and followed his stumbling run to get outside.

Just as they made it to the front doors, Agent Coulson came over his radio. "We're clear upstairs, sir. We need to go."

Orthani jumped into the passenger hold of the helicopter and helped Nick inside as it took off from the ground. As he closed the cabin doors, she looked back down as the helicopter climbed into the sky and she watched in awe as the ground started caving in right where they once stood. It was like a bomb went off underground, and the entire NASA base slowly started collapsing in on itself.

"Here!" he shouted over the noise of the blades of the copter, snapping her from her look of horror. "We trained you how to shoot a gun, right?" he said as he handed her a Colt .45. She nodded. "We're gonna shoot this sonofabitch," he said with a dead serious face. He jumped up to tell the pilot to head towards the exit tunnel where the now rogue S.H.I.E.L.D members and an Asgardian were likely to end up at.

She stared blankly at the spot Fury was once sitting in. _I can't shoot him…_she thought as Nick came back to sit.

"You ready, Agent Mynx?" he stated when he saw her blank expression.

_No._ "Yes sir," she lied through her teeth.

"Good. Cause here they are," he said right as the Jeep Clint was driving sped out from the tunnel, the copter right beside it almost.

Once Clint saw the copter slightly ahead of them, he turned the wheel, taking them off road and into the dusty dirt of whatever state they happened to be in.

She shot at the hood of the car, not actually wanting to hit anyone as Fury did. For once in her life, she prayed that his notorious sharpshooting skills would fail him just this one time. If he hit Loki, she would never forgive herself.

She was literally playing both sides of this war. She was doing just enough to appease Fury, yet not actually doing enough to cause any damage to Loki and go back on her promise she had made a little over a year ago.

She froze when she saw Loki charging his staff.

"Nick!" she shouted just as he launched the charge towards the copter, causing the back engine to explode into fire.

_Yep. This is it. I'm dead. _She thought to herself as the aircraft started spinning in circles. Nick grabbed onto her arm and pulled her out when he jumped from the aircraft. He made a safe landing, carefully rolling and then propped himself up on one knee so that he could let off another few shots towards the now escaping vehicle.

Orthani, however, was a bit more susceptible to the impact of the landing since she was more fragile than her Director was, as well as the fact she had no control of the fall since she was practically pulled out of the aircraft. She had no armor, no protection to ease the blow of her hitting the ground and rolling quite a distance from her point of impact; therefore, instead of jumping up and taking a few more shots towards the jeep, she just remained face down in the dirt, the wind knocked out of her lungs.

She coughed as Nick ceased his fire and let out a loud growl. He jumped to his feet and went over to check on Orthani.

"Agent Mynx," he huffed as he went back on one knee once he approached her side.

She coughed and gasped for air as she hoisted her torso off the ground. She put one foot on the ground, and then the other shortly after that. Her lungs were still refusing to take in air, but after a few seconds, the pain from the shock of impact wore off and she was able to breathe a bit easier.

"Consider this your redemption," he exhaled heavily, gingerly helping her to her feet.

If she had the ability to smile right then, she would've, but she was still trying to recover from that fall, which had been a good 15 feet above the ground. She just nodded weakly and kept her back hunched over, huffing and puffing until her breathing became normal.

Agent Coulson had come over the radio again, but her brain was too jumbled to really process what he and the Director were actually conversing about. She just looked up and watched as the lights from the jeep got further and further away from them. A part of her didn't want to even try to understand why he was able to take Barton so easily. _At least Barton did what he said. He didn't let him take me, then again, I did cower behind a cement block like an idiot,_ she thought to herself, hanging her head in guilt. She knew she had no other choice; there was no telling what he would've done to her had she shown her face. She'd probably be in the same shoes as Clint at this point had she walked out from the shadows.

"What do we do sir?" she said weakly when she had regained some composure.

"We fight. We are at war," he said as he put his radio back in his coat pocket.

"No, I mean about Agent Barton," she clarified.

She heard him exhale, and that made her stand up straight for the first time since she had fallen out of that helicopter.

"What about him, Agent Mynx?"

"He's my partner, Director. I can't just leave him. I have to at least try and get him back, please." She was begging him to give her a chance to somehow retrieve an agent under total mind control, and she knew it was an insane plea. But she had to do it.

"I can't let you wander into their territory, Orthani," he said firmly.

"Nick, he would do the same for me, ok?" she said a bit more strongly this time. "If I was in that seat instead of him, he'd be trying to get me back instead of obeying your orders to shoot me for going against my contract, and you know this."

Nick's eyes gave her a somber look. "He's an expert assassin, and he's been compromised. I can't let you wander into that situation so carelessly-"

"He had my back, Nick!" she shouted with every ounce of air she had managed to get into her lungs. "He will always have my back! You assigned him to that duty, and by doing that, you gave me the same responsibility as him. I can't leave him out there for Loki to utilize like a minion doing his dirty work!"

He exhaled. "If you get the chance to talk him into standing down on down the line, then take it. I can't stop you from at least attempting that. Just don't go and get yourself killed," he said seriously. "Do not put yourself in danger just to save him. This guy has him under his complete and total control which tells me he wouldn't hesitate to kill you."

_Unfortunately, you don't know the relationship between Loki and I, so you obviously don't know that since Loki wouldn't want to kill me, neither will Clint under Loki's control,_ she thought to herself. _Hopefully he doesn't want to kill me._

"Of course I'll be careful, sir," she nodded, purposefully neglecting to tell him what was on her mind.

"Good. Now come on. We're heading to our home base. We're assembling the Avengers Initiative. Coulson's got Agent Romanoff on the line by now, hopefully. In the next few weeks, we'll have the world's greatest superheroes all gathered at S.H.I.E.L.D trying to find this guy," Nick spoke as they both headed past the crash site and towards the road.

_The pilot never made it out,_ she realized as she watched the copter continue to burn. She gave a slight nod of her head in salute to the fallen S.H.I.E.L.D member as they passed it.

"And what about me, sir? What's your plan for me?" she asked, wiping the back of her hand against her cheek when she felt something tickling her skin. She ended up smearing blood across her cheek and onto the back of her hand. It was a small cut, nothing too bad, but it did sting when she touched it and she winced.

"You are no Avenger," he chuckled, slowly limping alongside her. "You are a special agent. You can assist the Avengers, though. I'll give you the luxury of shipping out with them if you choose to, since you're so set on finding Agent Barton and talking him back to our side," he extended the offer. "You're no superhero, unfortunately. I can't name you apart of that team when you can do exactly what Clint and Natasha can do; only difference is you handle yourself better with a few pointy daggers and a specially made outfit to muffle every move you make. It isn't fair to the rest of them," he explained. They made it to the road just as he finished making his statement. "I'll allow you to assist. That is it. Am I clear?"

She nodded. "Of course, sir. I'll stay out of the way as I always do," she spoke with little sign of disappointment. She never wanted to be in the Avengers in the first place and she was glad she wasn't being forced into it like the others had been. "There's a reason Clint called me Ghost, sir. I'm always out of the way; never there until I'm needed."

He scoffed. "You sure as hell weren't there when I needed you in that bay, Agent Mynx," he said as he pinged his location to Coulson with his radio.

She bit her lip, tasting blood from where she had apparently split her lip. "It's a complicated situation, Director," she sighed, taking a seat along the roadside. "I have reason to believe if I had shown my face out there then Barton wouldn't be the only top Agent you'd be down right now," she said as he sat down beside her.

"Yeah, you said you once worked for Loki?" he brought up what she had said back in the now destroyed NASA station.

She nodded. "Yeah, when you guys first started chasing me. Agent Coulson found my destroyed truck out in the middle of nowhere? You had a suspicion I was helping someone, but never found out who? Remember all that?" she reminded him. "He was the one. I might've not said anything about how I wasn't alone the day we went and raided that S.H.I.E.L.D base, but I can tell you in all honesty, I wasn't. Loki opened that portal the first time," she said, choosing what to indulge to him very carefully. "That's it. I worked for him before you guys caught me. If I had jumped down from that hiding place, he would've taken my mind as well."

It was a tiny lie. He probably would've used that silver tongue of his to convince her to turn on S.H.I.E.L.D, in which Nick wouldn't have hesitated to shoot her the moment she did. Had she refused and resisted that tongue of his, he might've taken her mind, he might not have. She would never know for sure now.

"You couldn't just throw one of them daggers to the back of his head?" he raised his brow in disbelief.

She shook her head. "You saw how those bullets were bouncing off his skull. A dagger wouldn't have done anything, plus the fact he's super aware of his surroundings," she started making up things on the spot even though she knew very well she could've planted one of her blades in between the bones of his neck and easily taken him out. "He would've sensed the damn thing heading towards him and easily deflected it. It would've done nothing but blown my cover."

Nick nodded, believing every word of it.

_Geez, I sound like Loki, coming up with lies on the spot, _she thought to herself.

"A helicopter is being sent to your location, Nick," Coulson's voice crackled over Nick's radio. "It should be there within the hour."

Nick pulled the radio out of his jacket pocket. "Copy that," he said simply, afterwards, returning it to his coat. "When we get on that copter, I'll be sending you straight to base," he told her, resting his elbows on his knees. "You'll wait there for my instructions."

"And you sir? Where will you go?" she asked in curiosity.

He exhaled. "I believe I'll be needing to speak to a certain Captain whose been hiding out since he woke up," he told her. "Agent Romanoff will be going to get a certain genius who also doubles as a giant raging monster I assume, and Coulson will be going to retrieve Stark," he voiced his plans. "It's a long shot, actually getting such a diverse group of heroes to work together, but it's all I can think of that can help us win this war."

She nodded silently, agreeing with the fact that the chances of the Avengers Initiative actually being a success were slim. She hadn't met any of them, but Clint had told her all about them. Tony Stark was the narcissist and would be the one who wanted it to be all about him. He would make anything he said seem as though he was the better out of all of them. Captain America was long out of his time; the leader who would certainly butt heads with a few of them since he would be returning from solitude to lead them. The Hulk? No one knew much about him. He had disappeared; even Clint didn't know where he was. Romanoff, she hoped and prayed to god she wouldn't think lowly of her. Natasha could take her down in half a second if she wanted to, and she'd definitely not take to lightly to someone who was stepping on her well known reputation of being the stealthy one. Even throwing the fact she wasn't even a part of the exclusive superhero club, she was sure Natasha wouldn't care. She was still emulating her legacy, though not by her own choice.

Orthani sighed, knowing she had a lot to look forward to, most of it being the judgment from those she would be shadowing around for the next timeslot in which it took for this war to end.

_Just let him live; as long as this doesn't end with Loki's death, I can get through this war. Just please, Loki, don't get yourself killed._

* * *

It took a few weeks for Coulson to track down each individual in order to get them into the S.H.I.E.L.D operation. Though on Loki's side, he was already hard at work. His newly acquired corrupted S.H.I.E.L.D agents had already made haste in remaking what he needed in order to open a proper portal. They even recruited a slew of workers to aid in their building and research, which made the abandoned warehouse they were working out of a bustling center full of scientists. That Agent, what was his name, Barton, he believed, even thought of bringing in security guards to trot around with their machine pistols, keeping place well guarded to make sure it stayed secure and obscure to the wandering eyes of overly curious humans.

Most of the time, Loki sat to the side and just watched quietly as his small human army worked. At times, he would simply smile to himself in the simple delight that his plan was working flawlessly.

_Though she is missing,_ he kept thinking at random intervals in the day. _She had yet to arrive. Why?_

He didn't understand. She promised him from the beginning that she wouldn't go back on an alliance she had made with someone, so why wasn't she here?

_I assume she has come to the conclusion that she was on the wrong side with this war,_ he came to the somber conclusion. _What I have done to protect her has caused her to leave. So be it. I'll presume she is safe and hopefully far away from the destruction about to descend upon this unsightly planet._

* * *

**A/N:** Can I just say that you guys are the best? No seriously, everyone who is reviewing, I love you. Every time I see someone saying they love this story, I end up writing like a maniac for the next few hours.

**Lowri: **I'm glad you like it. =D

**darkwinged18: **Thank you! I've been writing stories like this since I was 12, believe it or not. x.x Most of my characters I have work for their glory, otherwise I'll end up hating them myself. I can't stand even the slightest hint of Mary Sue in my characters.

**Beth: **Aaaaah, thank you so much. -hearts-

**SilverTongueLoki:** Yessss x) As long as accidental Twilight references didn't scare you off, I'm happy.

**clusterlizard1:** Oh my god, thank you so much. That review made my day. Seriously, with the whole thing. I've never been one to think I write good fanfiction, but that literally gave me a smile I couldn't wipe off for the rest of the night.

**Zing:** See, I would post more than one a day, but then I'll end up writing chapters the day I post them, and I hate not being punctual. Should I get a decent amount written ahead of time, maybe one day I'll do a double post if I ever leave you guys with the worst cliffhanger ever written.

**Personwithoutanaccount:** Haha, you'll see. You'll see. x)

**Knavo:** I agree with you, Twilight sucks. (I'm sorry to anyone who disagrees with me! It's a personal opinion, please don't kill me x.x)


	17. Chapter 16: Rogue

_Loki, come on, where are you,_ Orthani paced the floor in the flying airship nervously. He hadn't made a noise since the last time she saw him, which was at least three weeks ago. Steve, Bruce, and Natasha had gotten there just two days ago, finally allowing Nick to get the ball rolling on the entire project.

She was in the upper floor lab or workroom, whichever one they called it, that hung over the main control room where Nick and the other S.H.I.E.L.D members worked like ants to keep the ship in the air. She knew that in time, it would be overcrowded with the newly arrived heroes, but for now, she was using it as a loft to watch all the screens they had running facial recognition software trying to find Loki.

_Come on, Loki. You can't hide forever. _She quietly paced, biting her lip, now healed from the time she had split it during that fall from the helicopter. _God damn, you can't keep doing this to me, running off and disappearing without a trace._

"So you're the new blood," she heard a female voice from behind her, and she turned around to see the infamous Black Widow standing at the door.

Orthani didn't say anything. She honestly didn't want to.

"What, cat got your tongue?" she said with a hint of snide. She walked up to her and put her hand out. "Agent Natasha Romanoff."

Orthani shook her hand. "Agent Orthani Mynx," she introduced herself in the same way Natasha did.

"I heard they call you Ghost around here?" Natasha asked lowly, crossing her arms over her chest. It wasn't much of a question more so than it was a request for an explanation.

"I have a tendency to be invisible around here. Hard to see, hard to hear, and always gliding around without making a sound," Orthani explained softly.

Natasha nodded, staring her down as she does with all her clients; she was trying to read her just as everyone else was. "I guess we'll see about that," she raised her brow and walked past her. "Here you go, Doctor Banner. It's all yours," Natasha walked to the front glass and turned on her heels.

"Thank you, Natasha," Bruce replied from the door, slowly stepping forward as Natasha walked right back out of the room, not even giving Orthani a second glance.

Orthani gave him a forced smile. "Here, I'll just leave you to your science-y stuff," she exhaled, rushing to exit the room.

Instead of letting her leave without saying anything else, he put out his hand to introduce himself. "Bruce Banner," he said as he put his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

_At least someone's being nice._ She shook his hand as well. "Orthani Mynx," she replied softly.

"Nice to meet you, Agent Mynx. Hopefully you won't be a ghost around here all the time. As much as Agent Romanoff doesn't want to admit, she knows Fury needs you around here," he told her as she dropped the handshake.

Orthani scoffed. "So everyone's already told you," she gave a lighthearted smirk.

He gave her a smile. "This is S.H.I.E.L.D. I haven't even been in contact with these people since New York, but the second you step onto this ship, the walls start talking," he said warmly. "You're like me. Everyone's stepping around you cause they don't know when you'll snap," he said as he went to go and start working on the high-tech touch screen computers set all around the room. "They all keep an eye on you as if you're going to do something wrong the second you-" he turned around to keep talking to her, but she was already gone. He furrowed his brow, looked around the room with a puzzled look, and then gave a half hearted shrug as he went back to start his work.

* * *

She had seen a computer go off with a match to Loki's face in the bay as Bruce was talking to her. She also saw Director Fury and Steve head to the tech that was monitoring the computer that had the hit show up on. She dashed out of the room without making a sound and rushed to Director Fury as he finished his conversation with Steve.

"Director, what's happening?" she asked him firmly as Steve walked past her.

"We've found Loki, though he's not doing much to hide himself. He's up in Germany. Stuttgart to be exact," he told her, clasping his hands behind his back. "Oh nono, I know that look in your eye, Ghost. You can't tag along and go get him." It was like he read her mind.

"Sir, you forgot I know how Loki thinks," she told him. "When I was with him, he never strutted about showing his face as he is now. He doesn't do something unless he knows it won't blow his operation. There's more to it than this." She didn't know if that was her telling a lie to hide the truth, or telling the truth disguised as a lie.

"What are you saying, Agent Mynx?" he enunciated.

"Let me go. I have a feeling Barton's going to be lurking about. Things are never this simple with Loki. Please, let me go." That was definitely the truth.

He pressed his lips into a thin line. "If I let you go on this mission and you blow this and my team has to come and take care of your mess and we lose Loki, then I will be more than just furious with you. I will be so goddamn angry I might just turn into the Hulk instead of Banner, is that understood, Agent Mynx?" He gave her a threatening warning.

She nodded. "I have to try and get Clint back. I owe him my job after he promised me he'd have my back when Loki showed up. He told me he wouldn't turn me, and instead he got himself compromised. I have to at least try."

Fury nodded. "Dammit, Ghost. I can't deny you the opportunity to try. If you get yourself killed, now that's on you. I'll make sure you'll have a hell of a funeral though," he joked.

"I owe you one, sir," she gratefully bowed her head.

"Go get suited up. That catsuit doesn't fit you as well as your gear," he nodded her off towards the direction of what he referred to as her 'Ghost gear:' the all leather outfit, midriff and arms bare to help her maneuver with a dangerous stealth. "I'll tell Romanoff that you're coming with her and the Captain on the jet, but you will be on your own once your feet touch the ground again, so watch yourself. Keep radio contact at all times."

She nodded. "Completely understood, sir."

"Don't mess this up."

"I won't. I'll try my damnedest to get him to stand down."

"You'd better hurry. Unless you're on that craft before they're ready to leave, they will leave you here and you won't get to go, and that's on you." He gave her a stern look.

With that, she rushed off to get suited up, only barely making it onto the flight deck as Romanoff and the Captain stepped onto the deck as well.

Natasha gave her a nod. "Nick told me you were tagging along, but didn't say why. Spill," she yelled over the roar of the engines.

_Oh that's right, Nat's got a thing for Barton, no wonder he didn't tell her._

"I'll tell you when we get into the air. Come on," she skirted around the question as she pulled half of her hair up into a ponytail behind her head. She left the rest, the longer strands that hit at the middle of her back, stay down. She just wanted something that would keep the medium length strands out of her face while letting the short, side-swept bangs that parted off to the side fall over her left eye.

Natasha just went with it and led them to the aircraft they would be taking all the way to Germany. She sat in the co-pilot seat while the Captain and Orthani remained standing in the back.

"So tell me, what's this thing Nick has you doing," Natasha said as they got the jet into the air and set its course to Germany.

Orthani hesitated to answer, picking her words carefully. "I'm gonna try to bring back Agent Barton," she said, grasping onto one of the handrails above her head to keep herself steady.

Natasha froze, her arm stretched towards a button on the controls. "He's sending you in to save Clint…"

_Oh god, here we go._ "He's my partner, Agent. I refuse to let him sit out there and rot under Loki's control," she said confidently.

"Are you sure you should be the one doing this?" she stared at her intensely.

"I know you and him are close, Agent Romanoff. He's told me your story, I know how it is with you two. I understand how you would want to be the one responsible for turning him back to our side, but I can't stand around and wait for you to have free time on your hands. I owe him my job here at S.H.I.E.L.D, and he's like the older brother I never had the luxury to have," Orthani told her as she turned back around to focus on the sky before them.

"Are you sure you can take him?" Natasha asked flatly with little emotion whatsoever. "He's a master class trained assassin, and he's dangerous given the state he's in."

Orthani nodded. "I can take him. We used to kick box during our breaks before our first major incident with the Tesseract that ended up getting us shipped out to that NASA base. I know what I'm up against."

"Kickboxing isn't the same as combat," Natasha interrupted her.

"I know that, Agent. You forget I'm a trained assassin as well. I might not have as much experience as you two, but I do know what I'm doing," Orthani retorted smartly.

Natasha kept quiet for a few moments. "Just don't get yourself killed. And don't get him killed either."

Orthani smirked. "Red in your ledger?"

She couldn't see it, but Natasha smirked as well. "Red in my ledger."

Orthani gave a nod of approval.

"Captain, this is Ghost," Natasha took the liberty to introduce the two. "Ghost, this is Captain America. Or also know as Steve Rogers."

"Ah, the one and only," Orthani briefly shook his hand.

"You don't look much like an assassin," he told her, eying her outfit.

She smirked. "And you don't look like you've been asleep for 70 years." He raised his brow and gave a slight side shrug in agreement. "Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton are the ones you'd call in for a public assassination of a leader. I'm the one you'd call in if you want to kill the leader and his entire house full of people in their sleep."

* * *

"Keep your radio on so I can hear you," Romanoff spoke as she hovered the aircraft over the park just a little ways out from where the gala that Loki was spotted at was being held. She let down the cargo bay doors so that Orthani could get out. It was already dark out in Stuttgart, which was the perfect time for her to do her thing.

"Will do, Agent." With that, she jumped out, and unlike the unfortunate falter she had made with Fury the last time she jumped out of an aircraft, she was able to control her fall and land safely on the ground after a few tumble rolls that she did in order to disperse the momentum of the fall without hurting herself. She looked up and watched as the doors closed and the aircraft took off in search of a hiding spot until they were able to formulate a good plan.

"Alright, so what's the plan for you guys?" she pressed her hand up to her radio that was secured in her ear.

"Lay low and just watch. We want to see what Loki's up to, but we don't actually have eyes inside here, so our best hope is to just watch and see what happens," Natasha's voice crackled in her ear.

"Alright, but stay kinda close. I have no idea if Barton is even here, so just to be safe-"

"Fury said you were on your own on this one, Ghost. We have our own mission to carry out."

Orthani silently cursed to herself. "Right, copy that. Didn't know Nick was so thorough with you on that one," she somewhat joked. "Alright then. I'll radio in when I get Barton."

"Copy that."

Orthani stood up from her crouched position and darted over to the line of bushes just across from her. She made her way silently towards the street and then stayed in the tree line to keep an eye on things. They were at a museum, she thought, and back behind the building the museum was actually located in were large storage warehouses heavily guarded by gunned security. She scanned the area in front of her, looking for any sign of even one of Loki's men that could've shown up there.

Something caught her attention. It was a noise from directly behind her, like a twig had snapped or something. In a move that was made almost as quickly as lightning, she had grabbed her two daggers and swirled around, immediately making contact with a drawn bow. She ducked and redirected the aim with her blades right as the arrow was flung towards the center of her forehead, it barely missing the top of her head by merely inches. Before Barton had time to put another arrow on the rest, she hooked the bow in his hands with her two daggers and twisted, then used her grip to land a well placed kick to his chest. He was forced to let go of his weapon as he was flung backwards and he hit the ground with an audible thump.

She fell on her back, but quickly recovered to her feet and threw the bow she had ripped from his hands out into the open bricked street, far from Barton's reach. He lunged at her, and she wasn't fast enough to jump out of the way which ended in the both of them flying out from behind the tree line and landing on the cobblestoned road. Thankfully, most of the cars that were on that road were parked on the sides and no one was driving down it at that time.

She rolled to a stop a few feet away from him and ended up shuffling his bow even further away so that he wouldn't be able to quickly grab it without going through her first. When she stood up, she put all the weight onto the balls of her feet, causing the heels of the boots she was wearing to snap out of being flats to form those heels she used solely for this purpose: Hand to hand combat.

"I can see you from here, Agent!" Romanoff's voice suddenly came over the radio bug in her ear. "Remember, don't kill him! You weren't sent to kill him!"

"Yeah yeah, I know," Orthani growled back in annoyance as Clint came at her with a dagger of his own. She was able to dodge most of his attempts to swipe at her face by blocking his arms and redirecting the blade just above her shoulder. She was so focused on trying to avoid that blade that she was caught off guard when he used his foot to hook around her ankle and pull her leg out from underneath her. She tumbled to the ground, but her reflexes were quick enough to roll out of the way before he tried to sink the blade into her skull. She heard the blade make contact with the road and she quickly jumped up and grabbed him in a chokehold. She put one of the dagger blades up to the skin on his neck.

"Clint, stop this! It's me!" she said as she fought against his struggling. He didn't respond except for flipping her over his shoulder and bringing her to the ground hard. She landed on her back, the hit hard enough that it definitely made her freeze for a second or two before she was able to move again. She reacted fast enough to prevent her own blade from being pressed into the side of her neck. She swung her legs around to kick him off of her, but unfortunately when he flew off to her side, he landed right next to the bow she was trying so desperately to prevent him from getting a hold of. Before she was able to even stand up, he was towering over her, bow drawn and it aimed directly at her temple. She was cornered, kneeling on one knee on the ground and crouched down low in a forced surrender.

"Clint, its Orthani!" she said, almost paralyzed in fear. His eyes were glassed over, electric blue in color and bloodshot as well. He had been completely taken over, his mind now in Loki's total control. "Clint, listen to me, this isn't you," she tried to reach out to him verbally to talk him into standing down. "This is Loki. He's taken control over you; you can't keep listening to him!"

She watched his face for any sort of expression to cross his face as he stared her down. His face remained stone cold and unmoving. "Clint, come on, I know you're in there somewhere. You can fight this! Fight!" she started yelling only to have him draw the string back further. She exhaled roughly and lowered her voice. "Clint, we need you at S.H.I.E.L.D; the world needs you at S.H.I.E.L.D-"

"S.H.I.E.L.D is my enemy. S.H.I.E.L.D needs to stop getting in the way of progress," he cut her off. His voice sounded completely normal, though the way he was talking was definitely not him.

"Listen to yourself," her eyes furrowed with emotions. "You sound like him, Clint. You sound like Loki, this isn't you," she looked up at him with desperate eyes. "You are a top grade assassin, Clint. You've been trained to kill the bad guys, not work with them." _Emotions, Orthani. Play his emotions, maybe we can tease Clint out by playing his emotions. _"You were trained to work with us, not kill those trying to help you. Please fight this, Clint."

He still gave her a stone cold look. "I work with Loki now. I have been ordered to kill anything or anyone who gets in my way of doing what I need to do," a sneer slowly crept up his nose.

"Not too long ago, you told me something Clint. You told me that you wouldn't dare let Loki turn me to his side. You kept that promise, but in turn put yourself into his hands. Here we are, at the reverse roles that we should be in right now, and I'm going to say the same thing you would be telling me if this were different. I'm not here to hurt you, I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to bring you back to S.H.I.E.L.D," she said calmly, putting away both of her daggers to prove to him she was being serious.

He let a snarl form across his lips and he put the drawn arrow directly on her forehead, making her squint her eyes shut.

"I'd kill you before you had the chance to take me to S.H.I.E.L.D."

She exhaled a shaky breath. "You wouldn't kill me, Clint. I know you might be under Loki's control right now, but even you don't have the guts to let go," she called his bluff.

"You wanna test me on that?" He pressed the barbed arrowhead into her forehead, it barely breaking the surface of her skin.

"Honestly, Loki," she addressed the one who had full control over his mind, "You would kill me?" she asked bravely.

She saw the snarl slowly disappear off his face and his cheeks fell to that stone cold expression he once had. It was like he had to give it a moment's thought before he reluctantly withdrew the arrow from its loaded position and put his bow and arrow down.

"Clint, please come back-"

"I'm giving you 20 seconds to run for your life before I use you as target practice," he said softly, turning his head in the direction of the storage building behind the museum.

She took that moment to her advantage. She swiftly used her heels to hook around the shape of the bow and brought him to the ground before he could even figure out what was happening. She placed one of her heels on his shoulder in an attempt to keep him down, but he simply grabbed her foot and tossed her off of him, she practically slamming into the ground and sliding to a stop from the force. She frantically scrambled get to her feet.

He was faster, though. He jumped up and drew his bow, and then let the arrow fly.

Romanoff, who was listening to the conversation over the communicator, almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a scream of pain come across her radio.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm kinda evil for doing this to you. Cliffhangers suck. I know. I am ashamed of myself. x.x

**Lime Toaster Cat:** Shhhh! Actually you make a good point. xD The only way I can explain that away is if he thought he would take over, go get her, and then destroy the planet, so we'll say that's what he had in mind for continuity's sake.

**Chelsea:** Thank youu!

**Loki: **Holy crap, for a second there, that name scared the crap out of me. xD Glad you like it.

**socially munted:** Thank you kindly. I have a few chapters already written and queued up, if that appeases your addiction xD Should I get more than 6 written and waiting for me to post, I'll do a double post one day. **Probably today, actually. Since I just left you all on a terrible cliffhanger.**

**TheMagentaColor:** As for the confrontation between Loki and Orthani, it will happen soon, I promise. =) Glad you like the story.


	18. Chapter 17: Reunions

She let out a scream and she struggled to endure the intense pain that shot through her body as the arrow dug itself into her right thigh. It wasn't a straight perpendicular shot into her skin, but instead had gone in almost parallel with the bone due to how he was facing her when he let the arrow fly through the air. The sharpened barbed arrowhead had dug itself in deep and at an angle, the type of arrowhead making it easy to cut its way through skin. It was a true hunting style arrow, one that would instantly cripple its prey and was meant to cause as much pain as possible, and that was the price she had to pay for not wearing any sort of protection against such a weapon.

"Agent Mynx, can you report?" she heard Natasha yell over her earpiece. Orthani couldn't find her voice to answer her, her mind too busy with the pain radiating from her leg, which was now bleeding onto the cobblestone road. All she could do was curl up in a ball until the pain of the initial hit died down.

She gritted her teeth and slammed a hand down on the ground in both anger and pain before resting her forehead on her arm. She had already broken into a cold sweat as her body tried to get itself together and react to the chaos that one shot had sent her nerves into. She closed her eyes and purposefully stopped her breathing so that she could get a hold of herself, tears of pain already slowly falling from her eyes. She could tell Barton had long since disappeared, leaving her bleeding in the middle of the road. Her body quickly got used to the pain, luckily for her, which left her feeling numb on the inside.

"You're lucky he wants you alive," she heard a low growl above her and she turned her head to see Clint standing above her, a strange sort of container in his hands.

She still couldn't speak, but she gave him that desperate look in hopes he would help her.

He chuckled. "Nope. Not this time," he taunted before walking off.

However, that look bought her enough time to read what was printed on the container's label on the side. _Iridium. What the hell does he need that for _she weakly thought to herself as she watched him slowly disappear into the night.

"Agent Romanoff, I need immediate assistance," she barely managed to heave out over her communicator.

She didn't need to relay anything else. Natasha had already pointed the aircraft in her direction when she heard the scream over the radio and flew over the buildings by the time she had managed to utter those words over the radio. The Captain jumped from the aircraft and landed a few feet away from her as Natasha pointed the aircraft towards that park and flew into the clearing she had been dropped off in, hanging low in order to avoid being seen.

"Come on, we've got to get you to that aircraft. Hurry! Loki's just exited the gala," he told her, picking her up out of the small pool of blood that had formed at her knee and rushed her towards the park clearing just a football field away.

He set her on the floor inside the ship, yelled something to Natasha, and then ran back out just as she had lifted the bird back into the air. She pressed a button and the cargo door shut.

"What the hell happened? Last I heard over the radio, you got him to leave you alone!" Natasha screeched at her as she put the aircraft on autopilot to hold it in position until Steve needed her to show herself. She got up out of her seat and went over to Orthani, who was curled up on the floor and clutching her thigh in pain.

"I tried to take his bow away; I didn't want him crossing me," she hissed as she tried to sit up and drag herself across the floor with her arms.

"Yeah, never take his bow, he hates that," Natasha rolled her eyes and scoffed. "You just about blew this entire operation, pulling that stunt. Are you absolutely out of your mind?" she yelled again as she headed back into her seat. She heard the captain talking over the radio and it sounded like he had confronted Loki by now.

"He made off with an entire container of Iridium. I didn't blow this operation, I just brought you some of the most useful information you're gonna get out here," Orthani growled, pulling herself into a corner behind the pilot's seat and resting up against the walls of the cargo area.

Natasha looked back at her and saw she was losing blood. Her eyes rested on the arrow that had buried itself at least a third of its length into her thigh. It wasn't a lot of blood since the arrow was probably stopping most of it, but it was still enough to worry her. "Get back there and get a loose tourniquet on her leg before she bleeds all over the place, will you?" she told the pilot, who left Natasha at the controls to do what she ordered. She reached up above her head and pressed a button and the giant gun below the belly of the jet released just as she approached the scene. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," she said over the plane's PA system.

Orthani felt the plane take a sudden bank to the left and she grabbed onto the seat to her right in order to keep herself from moving.

"Dammit!" she heard Natasha swear under her breath.

Orthani stayed still as the pilot took the strap of his machine gun off and looped it around her thigh. He fastened it loosely, knowing that it wasn't to save her from bleeding out, only to keep her from bleeding so much. She flinched and let out a groan when he tightened it slightly, she feeling the uncomfortable sensation of her skin being wrapped around a sharp object embedded at least 3 inches under her skin.

"She'll need to have that looked at when we-"

"Yeah, I know," Natasha interrupted the pilot as he went back to his seat.

Orthani pulled herself out of her corner, already feeling claustrophobic. She laid down on her back right at the feet of the row of seats lining the left side of the jet where passengers would be sitting in any given occasion. She put an arm over her eyes and just rested there, trying to tell herself to ignore the now constant throbbing pain in her thigh.

"This guy is all over the place," Natasha muttered, trying to align the guns in order to take a shot at Loki.

Suddenly, the sweet words of ACDC's 'Shoot to Thrill' started playing faintly over the radio.

"Agent Romanoff…"

Orthani suddenly sat up at the sudden voice and then immediately regretted it when a sharp pain shot through her body. She doubled over and hissed in pain.

"…Did you miss me?" It was Tony Stark, and he must've told Jarvis to override the system because suddenly the music was turned all the way up and started playing over the PA system.

_Great, I can sense some Tony Stark ridicule coming my way_, she groaned. She rested her left arm on one of the seats beside her and kept her other hand on her wound like it would somehow magically take the pain away, even though she knew it wouldn't.

"Make a move, reindeer games," she heard him say over the PA once more, and she could only imagine the look of annoyance on Natasha's face at that moment. "Good move," he said after a few moments.

The jet banked slightly to its right, and it caused Orthani to reach and hold onto something so that she wouldn't slide across the floor. Her sudden movement, hell any movements she made at all sent a shock through her spine. She flinched and heaved out another audible groan.

"Sorry, Mynx, you're gonna have to hang in with us here," Natasha said as she steered the jet to a safe landing spot close to where the Iron Man and the Captain had apprehended Loki. "We've still got a 4 hour flight back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Hopefully it won't be too crowded back there," she said as she clicked a few buttons and landed the jet on the ground as smoothly as she could. However, when the single front wheel hit the ground after the back two, it jolted the entire cabin. The end of the arrow barely touched the floor briefly, but it was enough to put pressure on it and send Orthani into another spasm of pain.

She silenced a yelp in the back of her throat as the back cargo door was let down, but the pain was lingering and she let out a frustrated roar of agony and clenched her fists into a ball. She slammed her fists into the seat of the chair she was using as something to prop her torso off the ground and pulled her uninjured leg to her chest. She still had a cold sweat over her entire body and she was quickly growing exhausted from the continuous minor convulsions of pain the wound would cause if she even so much as twitched her right big toe.

"Woah, someone's pissed," she heard Tony's voice say through his suit of armor as he clanked into the cargo hold. Since she had her back to him, she couldn't exactly see him enter.

"Easy Stark, Barton got a hold of her," Natasha defended her.

Tony took off the Iron Man helmet and set it on a weapon's hook just behind Natasha's seat.

"Go ahead and lock him in one of those seat restraints, Cap," Tony ordered the Captain.

Her eyes flew open faster than she could think. _Loki. He actually surrendered? Nonononono_. Her mind was filled with the thought of running, but unfortunately even if she thought it was a rational idea, she was injured well beyond the point of running. She started panicking. She definitely didn't want to have to first speak to him in the back of a S.H.I.E.L.D jet full of Fury's Avengers.

"Can't you just pull it out?" Tony stood between the two pilot's seats and stared at the arrow in her thigh.

"It's not that simple. You know how Hawkeye loves his fancy ammo," she said weakly, staring daggers into his eyes. She gripped the side of the seat she was hanging onto so tight her knuckles were starting to turn white. "Not to mention it just ripped through muscle like they were butter and it's probably an inch away from bone. If you want to be swimming in blood, then be my guest," she sounded like she was growling at that point.

Tony just gave her a blank stare. "I'm sorry, I'm still trying to figure out who you are," he said dryly, "and why you look like you just came from an S and M club." She couldn't tell if that was a compliment or an insult.

She snarled. "If I didn't have this thing in my leg, I'd have a blade to your throat so quick, you wouldn't know whether to shit or read the paper, Stark," she said the first thing that came to her mind. To her, it sounded incredibly stupid, but apparently it was good enough to bring a smirk to Tony's face.

"I like you. You've got spunk. I'm gonna use that one in the future," he waved off her jab and then turned to face the front windows. "Get Fury on the line for me, will you Agent Romanoff?"

The back door to the jet started closing and she could feel the jet slowly leave the ground. Orthani let out a low growl and attempted to heave herself into a seat. She was however stopped by Steve in the middle of her struggle.

"Don't. You shouldn't be moving too much or else you might just cause it to go in deeper than it already is," he said, taking her elbow and setting her back down on the floor.

"Captain, do you know how uncomfortable it is to have an arrow entangled in muscle stuck in your leg?" she said with a dangerous look in her eye.

"Look, I know you're mad that Barton got away," he said as he kneeled down next to her. "God knows what Fury's going to say about this, and I know you probably don't want to find out-"

"Yeah, thanks for the pep talk, Captain Sparkles," she sharply snapped at him. She instantly regretted it, closed her eyes and exhaled to say "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. The pain's getting to my head, sorry."

He chuckled. "Just stay put, will you? We don't want you ripping open an artery on accident," he said, sitting down on the floor next to her. He had been trained as an army man, so to him, any team member who was down deserved his upmost respect.

* * *

Loki had been watching those around him, silently assessing his environment since the man in the silly blue suit had strapped him in this strange device that kept him bound to his seat. He hadn't yet been able to see the woman sitting injured on the floor due to his vision being blocked by the soldier, and when he sat down next to her, he still couldn't see her.

He could, however, see the arrow sunk deep in her leg. He couldn't hide a faint smirk that curled on his lips. _Oh good, he managed to take down one of theirs. One less person to fret about._

Unfortunately for him, he wasn't paying close attention when she had been talking. Maybe he would've recognized her. He simply just sat back and observed everyone in the jet, but his eyes kept lingering over the Captain and whoever he was talking to. He couldn't hear the woman talk over the humming noise of the jet, but then he caught sight of two silver daggers secured on a belt at her waist.

His smile fell instantly. _No…of course not, it would be impossible for that to be her. Nonono, it isn't. Fury would be incompetent if he recruited her and then let her run off on her own like this woman did, no. _

"Let me heal her," he said in a coarse voice that was barely audible. The fact he actually let that slip surprised himself. He had been planning on holding his tongue the entire way there. Only Tony was able to hear it.

"We aren't that stupid, reindeer games," Tony scoffed, turning back around to face the three in the back. "Though I'd love to give miss dominatrix over here a chance to toss you around like a ragdoll," he jested, tapping his foot gently against Orthani's ankle when he said 'dominatrix.'

She gasped and doubled over, pain shooting up her spine again since Tony had caused her leg to move. She had moved into Loki's sight now.

On the inside, it was a mix of rage, anger, pity, relief, remorse even; but his face remained as still as a stone. There she was, lying injured in front of him because of Barton, his controlled assistant. He sat up straight in his seat and remained as collected as possible.

The entire rest of the room held their breath as Orthani gave a yelp of pain and held her breath as it slowly subsided. "Please don't do that ever again," she gasped, almost frozen in her current position.

"Sorry," Tony said sheepishly.

Loki couldn't tear his eyes off of her. He knew if he said something, the people on that jet would tear her to pieces. He could've called her out if he wanted to. He could've told her to return to his side. He could've twisted words to make them alienate her and force her back to his side. Instead, he remained silent for her sake.

He never realized just how much he missed her until she was right in front of him and he was unable to say anything to her. He never realized how much he truly cared for her until she was sitting before him, bleeding and suffering, and he was unable to rush to her side and relieve her of her misery. What surprised him the most is that these realizations that came to him actually hurt him on the inside.

He forced himself to tear his gaze away from her and gaze at the wall directly across from him. He couldn't take the sight anymore, not if he wasn't allowed to help her. _At least they spared her. I shall be grateful for that._

In his daze, she had readjusted where she sat, the Captain actually allowing and helping her into one of the seats so that she wouldn't move her leg too much. She was closest to the pilot's chair while he sat all the way at the end on the opposite side of the jet. He heard the other woman, Romanoff, talking to the Director over some sort of communications device and he stole another glance at Orthani's injury. He couldn't help himself.

It was bad. He could tell Barton had used some vile form of arrow to pierce her skin like she was some sort of animal to be hunted just by the way her skin had stippled at the entrance of the wound.

_He spared her. Of course he did, he would not do anything I wouldn't, and surely, most definitely I would have spared her. _

_I would not have shot her at all, rather. _

He tore his eyes away once more. He could hear the Captain and the Man of Iron talking in the background, but he couldn't understand it, nor did he want to understand. He just wanted to tell her he hadn't left her there to die on purpose and that it was done for her protection. If only he could share what he went through with the Other and the Chitauri, maybe she would understand. Maybe he would be forgiven.

Suddenly lightning struck and thunder pierced through his thoughts. _No…_

"What, scared of a little lightning?" the Captain jested him.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki replied, trying his best to hold his composure. He had already had one rough reunion with a woman whom he still hadn't been able to speak with yet. He couldn't dare be able to go through another within the same time period. _Thor, I swear to you, if you-_

The jet shook long before his thoughts were completed.

_Damn_. He watched as the Man of Iron put on that silly helmet of his and walked towards the cargo door and pushed the release button at the back. He followed the man with his eyes as he walked past him, briefly catching Orthani's gaze as she did the same. He froze, mentally panicked, and then flashed his eyes quickly to the rear right as his brother came into view.

Relief. That was what washed over him at that moment. Sweet relief.

* * *

**A/N:** As promised, the second one up for today. =)

**darkwinged18:** Oh good, I was hoping I had somewhat gotten his character right in this one, so that makes me feel better. x)

**Chelsea: **That made me laugh. Haha, seriously, I'm glad I have such avid readers.

**Loki:** You are absolutely awesome. That just made my day, no lie.

**TheMagentaColor: **Was this quick enough for you? =)

**SilverTongueLoki: **Yep. Two updates. As promised. I hate leaving people hanging with cliffhangers, but sometimes I just have to cut the chapter off because it'd otherwise end up being 10,000 words long otherwise, but I'll always try to update twice if I have to leave on such a note. That might also be me speaking from experience when I read a story and then have to wait a month in between chapters and they leave on such terrible cliffhangers that it kills you. x.x


	19. Chapter 18: Thor's Mistake

Orthani watched as a man in Asgardian clothing landed on the cargo door right in front of Tony. No one had time to react before he suddenly knocked the Iron Man out of the way, he landing back towards the pilots. She watched in alarm as he suddenly grabbed Loki by the neck forcefully and walked with him to the door once more. He jumped out, and it took everything in her power to keep her from screaming after him.

"Great. Now there's that guy," Tony exhaled in annoyance as he stood up.

She watched as Tony jumped out the back and then Steve as well, the state of shock she was in pretty much cancelling out the ache in her leg for the time being. She was only snapped out of it when Natasha closed the back and started making a turn to head back and land on ground so that they would be able to retrieve that which they lost, or rather, that which they let fly out the door.

"I hope you know, you don't fool me, Agent," Orthani heard Natasha say as the jet landed roughly on the ground.

"I wasn't aware I was trying to fool someone," Orthani said back, reaching down to grab her injured leg.

"You're hiding something."

"Oh yeah, well go get Agent Barton back and ask him. I'm not hiding anything that's already out in the open," she shot back.

That answer was enough for Natasha. She simply gave her a long, hard stare before returning to her seat and opening the cargo door for the men to reenter the jet whenever they saw it fit to stop their scuffling.

* * *

"Are we done here?" the Captain said softly as Tony and Thor looked around at the carnage they had caused.

Thor gave a slight nod after a few seconds of hard breathing.

"You'd better hope twinkle toes over there didn't run off," Tony said, the helmet rising up to show his face.

"Loki would not run," Thor answered him. "He is my brother, and I for one have not yet finished speaking with him." He started walking to where he had left Loki standing on that small cliff when the strange metal man had tackled him. "You will let me speak with him. Then we shall do whatever you so need."

The Captain nodded and Thor made his way over to his brother, who as he suspected, was still sitting on that same cliff he was left on.

"You have run out of time, brother," he said forcefully.

He heard Loki give a menacing chuckle. "Have I? In my eyes, my time has just begun," he mused, standing up and brushing the dirt off his clothing.

"What has happened to you, Loki? You have become vile in your time away," Thor shook his head as he approached his brother. "You were not once like this; you've grown mad with the idea of power."

"No, I have become true to myself. I have purpose," Loki sneered. "I am no longer to live in your shadow. I am not to be pushed away from that which I seek by some petty boy not yet ready to be king," he spat out.

Thor gave his brother a somber look. "Your time on Earth has been far different from mine. You have not yet seen the potential it holds, and you plan on destroying it."

Loki rolled his eyes. "It is weak. The daily scramble to maintain one's dignity is pathetic."

"You are testing my patience, brother," Thor slightly raised his hammer. He was definitely getting annoyed with Loki talking in circles around him.

"Then go on. Leave me here, if I have bothered you so," Loki smirked.

"You know I cannot."

"Siding with the ones who were against you the first journey here; that's a little dim even for you, Thor."

"Loki-"

"No. Your betrayal against me happened the day you watched me fall through the bifrost, do not attempt to sway me otherwise," Loki cut him off with a snarl.

"You were the one who let go!" Thor suddenly raged. "I could have saved you, Loki! You were the one who made the decision to let yourself fall!"

"You tossed me into an abyss-"

"You tossed yourself, I could not save you."

Loki looked at him harshly. "You can fly, Thor. With that hammer of yours at your fingertips, had you really cared, you would've saved me yourself."

Thor froze. He hadn't looked at it that way before, and he knew he was right. Not about the whole 'had you really cared,' just that he could have saved him.

"Please, brother. Come home."

"I cannot," Loki's voice dropped to a whisper and his face lost its hard expression. "Even if I so wished, I cannot."

"Yes you can-"

"No! The Chitauri are coming, there is no stopping them," he interrupted Thor before he got any further. "What has been done cannot be taken back."

Thor looked into Loki's green eyes and saw the gravity of the situation hidden in his eyes.

"We must go." He grabbed Loki's arm and roughly dragged him towards the Metal Man and the one in the extremely tight clothing with the indestructible shield.

They walked along in silence, following the Iron Man towards where Romanoff had landed the aircraft. That was, until Loki got cocky.

"So tell me brother, have you seen your dearly beloved Jane since you've been to Earth, hm?" Loki taunted. He was only doing it to get under Thor's skin; have a little fun before he would surely be locked up in S.H.I.E.L.D's custody for a good day or two. He might as well.

Thor would have none of it. Faster than Loki could react, Thor swung his hammer at him and hit him in the chest. He was sent flying backwards and hit the ground hard, sliding to a stop in the rough surface of the Earth. "Tell me you haven't laid a hand on her!" Thor roared, jumping up and landing right next to Loki. He grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to the ground.

The Captain and Iron Man simply stopped and watched, not daring to intervene with two demigods and their quarrels.

"Easy, brother, I have not touched her…yet…"

Thor snarled and shoved him into the ground harder. "How dare you speak foully of her," he growled and let him go.

"Oh brother, you haven't changed a bit," Loki groaned as he sat up. "You still have the anger and temperament of a child, yet you still have claim to the throne. And you call me mad," he said as he picked himself up off the ground.

* * *

Orthani rested her head back and closed her eyes, just trying to get herself through the night so that she could get back to S.H.I.E.L.D and get patched up. The arrow was extremely uncomfortable, not to mention painful, and all she wanted was to be rid of it. The unusual barbs on the arrowhead had caused it to latch onto her with a vice grip and wouldn't even pop loose on its own, she was sure of it.

"Don't do that, we don't need you going into shock," Natasha snapped her out of her few moments of peace after they had been sitting there for quite a while.

"I'm not going into shock, I'm simply trying to not freak out," she exhaled and then winced as she felt a twinge of pain in her leg.

"You know, you're quite the stubborn one," Natasha scoffed.

Orthani smirked. "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here, now would I?"

"Are you aware of the arrow that has lodged itself in your thigh, maiden?" she heard a deep, throaty voice appear from thin air and her eyes flew open to see the same blond haired man that had so rudely snatched Loki from his seat earlier walking into the jet.

"You must be Thor?" she asked, shutting her eyes once more.

"And you are?"

She smiled. "No one you should be worrying about."

Thor reluctantly took the answer, but he didn't believe it for a second. The rest of the men filed in with him, and they were soon off to get back to S.H.I.E.L.D before something else happened. Thor watched his brother carefully. All he wanted was to understand the reason as to why he was doing what he was. Of course, Loki was keeping to himself again, and he was smart to in this jet full of superheroes that he had no fighting chance against all of them at once.

Thor watched as Loki's eyes flashed around the room, carefully noting every expression that came on his face to try and see if it would tell him anything about what he was planning.

It didn't, though he did catch a flash of something that made something click in his head. The quick flicker of remorse when he looked towards that woman who refused to tell her name to him made him peak with curiosity. He looked toward Loki, then to that woman.

"You know her?" he bravely accused, causing the entire jet to go quiet.

Loki gave him a puzzled look. "What on earth are you talking about?" he lied through his teeth as everyone's eyes landed on him.

"You know her? This woman?" Thor took two steps towards the center of the jet.

"I know not of what you speak about, brother," Loki repeated himself in clearer terms. _Don't do this, Thor. You'll see to her death shall you do this._

"Is this the woman Heimdall spoke of?" Thor said clearly, giving his brother a firm look.

Loki froze. If Heimdall had seen her and spoke of her to Thor…

"What…"

"Before I left Asgard, he told me you had an ally," Thor explained.

Orthani's eyes flew open. Her throat felt like it was closing in on her, choking her in her own fear.

"That look in your eyes just then, you know her."

She froze. She was about to be forced to pick a side here, if Thor kept going where he was going.

Loki remained quiet.

"Answer me!" Thor roared.

"Why is it of importance to you?"

"Because she is playing both sides of this war."

Everyone turned to her this time, even Loki.

"Agent Mynx," Natasha let out a low growl as she handed the controls over to the pilot next to her. She stood up and joined the circle of people in the back of the jet.

"What, are you gonna shoot me for some wild accusation? Go ahead then," she spoke softly.

"Why don't you tell us who you really are," Natasha pulled out her gun and held it to her side, just in case something was to happen.

Orthani let out a soft snarl. "I never wanted to be a part of this war, Natasha. I never wanted to have to pick sides, yet here I am. I've been forced into an agency I never wanted to be a part of and I've become Fury's puppet-"

"Are you saying you're a mole?" Natasha accused her.

"I am nothing. I'm exactly what my codename is: Ghost. I'm neither here, nor there. I am no one. I don't have a side because I don't want one."

"Well, you're in S.H.I.E.L.D, that kind of means you have to pick a side," Tony spoke up.

"Forced. I was forced into S.H.I.E.L.D. I wouldn't even be here if Fury hadn't assigned me to work with Clint with the Tesseract security. I wouldn't be here if he hadn't made me his bitch, doing things for him that he should be doing himself."

"You're walking a fine line, Agent."

"Good. The faster this goes downhill, the faster Nick Fury decides to kill me. At least then I won't be caught in the middle of some hell fest like I'm in now," Orthani growled.

"Agent Romanoff, will you please stand down," Fury's voice echoed over the PA system.

"You shouldn't have trusted her, Director."

"Don't you think I'm aware of that?" he spoke as she put her weapon away. "I will deal with Orthani. You need to focus on landing this plane and getting Loki in here before he does something stupid."

"What, you think the whole arrow thing is a scam?" Orthani snapped at the Director. "What, do you think that was planned? Honestly, do you believe I'd willingly put myself into this position with an arrow stuck in my thigh, one that is supposed to rip your flesh apart?" She couldn't believe they were all turning on her.

"I'm surprised he didn't kill you, to be honest. So yeah, it does look a little sketchy, Agent Mynx," Fury mouthed off to her.

"Barton made off with an entire container of Iridium, Director Fury," she spat out his name like a bat out of hell. "Now if I was really playing Loki's side of the war completely like everyone says I am, I wouldn't have told you that."

Loki looked up from the hole his eyes were burning in the bottom of the floor and watched as her eyes darted to him. They made eye contact and held it since before he had left her on that S.H.I.E.L.D base alone. _So she has turned. So be it._ His face softened. He dropped his gaze.

Everyone remained silent, all of them waiting for Fury's answer. "Had you not redeemed yourself that day when Loki first came to Earth, I would have you tossed out the back of that plane without a parachute. You've been placed on warning," he spoke lowly and with a very serious tone of voice. "You are no longer allowed to work this case, nor are you allowed to work alongside these people. You will remain on this ship from the time you land until the time this war is over and until you have fully recovered from your injury. Then you will be shipped out back to your detention facility where you will remain for another two years. Am I clear, Agent Mynx?"

She pressed her lips into a firm line and closed her eyes, shaking her head in disbelief. "Yes sir."

Loki closed his eyes. He had blown it for her. She wasn't even on his side anymore, and yet her affiliation with him was enough to destroy everything she had worked so hard to become.

If he wasn't a monster before, he sure was now.

* * *

When they had gotten back to S.H.I.E.L.D, Loki was immediately taken to the cage Nick had built mainly for the Hulk. He was kept there while the Avengers team worked to figure out what was going on. Orthani, however, was rushed to a medic. Unfortunately for her, they weren't actually able to remove the arrow completely. They put her under so that they would be able to unscrew the arrow shaft from the arrowhead without her writhing and screaming in pain so that she wouldn't have that sticking from her limb, but the arrowhead had to remain until Nick authorized her to go to a proper hospital. It was too entangled in her muscles and skin for it to be pulled out safely without injuring her further.

When she regained consciousness an hour after they had popped the shaft from the arrowhead and pulled that out of her thigh, she realized she was held to the bed by restraints. Fury really didn't trust her anymore. She was still in her gear, though. Her pants had a hole ripped in them where the arrow sliced through the leather and went into her skin, but the hole in her leg had been wrapped up underneath her clothing.

She growled in frustration. _Are these really that necessary? I'm not even on any side anymore,_ she groaned to herself.

"Would you mind if I spoke to you?" she heard a deep voice say from the door of the room she was in. She turned her head to see Thor standing in the doorway.

"Ah, the one who decided he should throw me under the bus when he didn't even know me," she exhaled as he approached her bed.

"I do apologize for that," he said solemnly. "I was given a warning by our gatekeeper at Asgard to be wary of a woman whom Loki had bewitched." He pulled up a chair from across the room and sat down.

"And you had to put me in an even worse situation than I was already in? Thanks," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes and looking away from him.

"I did not come to chastise you. I came to ask you what exactly is going on," he told her seriously, not understanding the sarcasm in her voice. "You seem to be so unknown here, yet you have caused just as much chaos as my brother without doing more than receiving an arrow to your leg."

She scoffed. "No one trusts me here. No one wants me here."

"So then why are you here?"

"Because I'll be killed otherwise. Nick wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet through my brain had I not joined his stupid circus act. I did it so I can be kept alive a little longer."

Thor looked down to the ground.

"I'm no longer a person to them. I'm just a piece of property that they own. My life is just theirs for the taking," she said with a serious face. "That's why I haven't sided with someone on this war."

"So you do know my brother," he concluded, looking up from the floor. She nodded. "Why? What is he to you?"

She stared at him for a moment in hesitation before she answered. "He's the one that broke me from my prison, figuratively speaking. I helped him when he fell out of the sky. At the time, I was being forced to live such a terrible lifestyle, and he offered me a way out."

"So you worked for him at your own will?" he questioned with a puzzled look.

"I guess you could say that. He didn't have me under any mind control stuff, that's for sure."

He nodded. "So you have been forced to conform to the rules set forth by a higher authority. You have no choice for yourself?"

She sighed. "When you put it that way, it sounds so depressing," she nodded.

"I do apologize. I knew not that you were a neutral ally. Heimdall only tells me what he sees, not what actually is. Had I known you weren't a force to be wary about, I would not have spoken," Thor apologized sincerely. "Though know this, I could not take that chance at that time. I did not know if you were there to cross us or there to help us. I could not tell."

She exhaled. "It's alright. I'll just…I'll make it through eventually." She forced herself to smile.

He studied her face carefully. He had gained the talent for picking up on some of the smaller emotions hidden in the faces of humans, and he was able to pick up on a few of hers.

"Why have you not picked a side when it is obvious which you should choose?" he asked, suddenly realizing that she was conflicted between two sides, and one of them was obviously the better choice.

_Damn. _She hesitated. "I made Loki a promise," she sighed. "He's been betrayed for most of his life. I don't want to be one of those people that betrayed him as well," she explained simply.

Lies. All of it. Thor could see it in her face.

"You have grown to love him," he said softly in realization.

"That's a dangerous accusation you're making," she said flatly, curling her fingers into a fist.

"Your eyes tell me everything I need to know," he countered fluidly.

She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words. "Do I really?" she asked. Hell, at this point, she didn't even know how she felt.

"It is conflicted, but yes. Why else would you choose to put yourself in this situation so willingly?" he reasoned with her. "It is small. Hidden away by a sea of conflict you've been surrounded with. But it is there."

"How are you so sure?"

"I was once in your place. Not exactly the same situation, but it was close. I had to choose between letting Loki destroy an entire race or destroying the bifrost and abandoning my Jane after I told her I would come back for her. I will see her again one day, but it is still difficult to know that the last words I told her were that I'd be back for her. Yet, I still haven't gone."

She quietly listened to him.

"You cannot live on both sides. That is impossible."

She exhaled. "So what do I do then? I can't take this side without going back on Loki…"she trailed off.

"I do not want you to betray my brother. I fear that would simply cause more trouble than we need," he looked away from her in thought.

"I can't go to his side, Thor. I can't stand by as he destroys my home and be ok with it."

Thor waited a moment, and then stood up. He started to unfasten her restraints.

"What are you doing?"

"You must go talk with Loki, am I correct?" he said with his brow raised.

"Nick will kill me!"

"If he discovers you have escaped, I shall tell him I let you go due to the belief I did not think you were a threat and should be let go," he shrugged whilst walking over to the other side of her bed to undo the other wrist restraint. "As long as you do not set him free, I'm sure the Director will see to my reason."

"I can barely walk, Thor! I've got the tip of an arrow in my leg," she exclaimed quietly.

"Are you simply making up excuses because you are afraid of what Loki might say to you?"

She quieted, her protest immediately brought to a halt. "What?"

"You have not spoken to him since he got here, correct?" he asked as he undid the restraints at her ankles. "He has not been able to say a word to you. Had he done so, we would not be in this situation, I'd assume. The only reason for your protesting is because you fear what he has to say to you."

She froze, not knowing what to say.

"You have nothing to lose, am I not mistaken?"

She still remained silent.

He nodded. "As I thought. Go. The Widow is with him now, trying to find out his plans. When she leaves, I'm sure all of us will be busy with our own." He held out his hand to help her get up out of the bed. She reluctantly took it. "I shall help you down there."

"Did Fury send you or something? I'm finding it hard to believe that you're just letting me go so willingly…" she said as she stood on her own two feet. Her boots had once again turned back into flats, making it easier for her to walk even with that dreadful piece of metal lodged in her leg.

"You should learn to take whatever opportunity is given to you, Orthani," he chuckled as he helped her, actually forced her rather, to walk out of the room. "Just know that whatever he tells you, you will always have S.H.I.E.L.D and Nick Fury to protect you and help you."

"Great, you really think this is going to go that bad?" she groaned, gingerly walking down the hall with a major limp.

He chuckled. "That is not what I meant. I no longer know what my brother is capable of. You are walking into the unknown just as much as I am."

_Ah, well isn't that comforting._

* * *

**A/N:** Ok, so you remember the whole thing with the Twilight reference way back when? So I reread my story and found something that might totally make up for that. I referenced Sweeney Todd in Chapter 5:Constant Vigilance. I can forgive myself for the Twilight bit now that I've seen that. Just thought I'd bring that up.

**Vulcan Lily:** Well, they do, from an outsider's point of view! xD Especially Captain America; he's just begging to be ridiculed.

**LadyRae19: **Aaah thank you so much! x3 I know, it's kinda weird having fans of my story. I never thought people would like it so much, but every review I get just makes me write more just to make sure you guys don't get left out to dry like some people do here, unfortunately. x.x

YES GUYS, I LOVE YOU ALL. Thank you so much!

**Loki: **Ehhehehehehe x3

**Derpy:** That was my exact thoughts when I saw Loki being thrown in the cage during the movie. xD

**socially munted: **I'm so glad I could make your day! It's definitely a lot of fun, this fic. It takes a lot of time to write, but thankfully I have no life outside my house, so therefore I can write as much as I please.

I highly doubt this story will lose it's momentum for me, I can tell you that right now. Since I have a plot that's going somewhere and since I have so many chapters I'm really excited to start writing on, I doubt I'd leave you guys with an unfinished story. =)


	20. Chapter 19: Where a God's Heart Lies

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red?" Orthani heard Loki's voice faintly as she entered the room from the door just across from Natasha. Since the lights were dim, she was able to slip in unnoticed and hide in the shadows just feet away from the door, but she was completely out of sight. She watched them from behind the safety rails, keeping her eye mostly on Loki.

"Drakov's daughter, Tugenov, the hospital fire? Yes, Barton told me everything." His eyes were hardening, the green looked as if it was fading to black. "Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer... PATHETIC!" he practically spat out at Natasha, his voice taking on a more dangerous tone. He was working his way into her mind, playing with her sanity, and the look on his face proved that he was enjoying it. He suddenly grew quiet. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!"

He suddenly slammed his fist against the glass. "I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear!-"

Orthani had to duck underneath the platform Natasha was standing on to keep herself hidden when Nat suddenly turned away from him. She winced at the sudden scuffling she had to do to keep hidden, but she managed to keep quiet.

"-And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull!" He growled that last word, and it was enough to strike fear in Orthani's heart even though she wasn't even looking at him. "This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

Orthani leaned up against the railing, knowing that she was already hidden well enough that no one would see her. She closed her eyes and told herself to breath. _He's not like that, no. He won't be like that with me. _

_I hope._

"You're a monster," she heard Natasha whimper. He had gotten to her, completely broken her.

She heard Loki chuckle darkly. "Oh no. You brought the monster."

Orthani's eyes flew open. The statement was out of place to her. It didn't fit in with what he would say, normally.

"So. Banner. That's your play?" she heard Natasha say with a straight voice, the fear obviously gone.

_No…he honestly didn't just fool the Black Widow…_

"Wha?"

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk," Natasha suddenly started heading towards the door on the other side of the room. Orthani had to duck for cover once more. "Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well," she ordered to whoever was listening to her radio communicator. She suddenly turned back to Loki. "Thank you for your cooperation."

And with that, she left in a hurry. The door was slammed shut and the room was silent.

_Damn her, that wasn't who I thought it was when she first walked in_ Loki thought quietly to himself. When Natasha had first walked in and almost snuck up on him, he had turned around with a smile on his face expecting someone completely different. At that point when he saw it wasn't who he expected, he had to play nice for a change. He couldn't suddenly change his demeanor when that happened. Though he had to admit, he thought he handled that extremely well in his eyes. He turned his shoulder to the giant metal door the agent had just walked through and watched out of the giant door that he had been thrown into the cage from as if he was contemplating his escape.

Orthani peeked over the top of her hiding space, which was just a thin platform of metal that had all the wirings of the cage underneath it and covered a small walking space below in case someone needed to replace any wires at one point. She waited until she knew Loki wouldn't see her before she carefully crept to the side his back was turned to and silently hopped up onto the walkway leading all the way around the cage. He still hadn't heard nor seen her, regardless of the fact she had a crippled leg. She smiled slightly. Even injured, she had more stealth than Romanoff.

She stood there, waiting for him to say something or turn around. He didn't. She took a moment to take her hair out of the band she had tied half of it up in, just to try and see if he would notice the movement. He didn't.

She bit her lip. _Come on, Loki. I'm not that invisible, am I? _For once, her ability to be invisible to everyone actually hurt. _Loki, come on…_

He looked up to the ceiling of the cage he was in and stepped to his left. _I highly doubt such a cage would actually hold such a mindless beast _he thought to himself as he stepped towards the camera. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something there that wasn't there before. He shifted his eyes to catch a glance of it, and then had to do a double take and actually turn his head to see.

There she was, standing before him, still injured, still broken…

"How long have you been standing there…" he asked her, turning his body to face her. He clasped his hands behind his back.

"Long enough," she said. He could tell there was a sense of pain in her voice.

He nodded and lowered his head. "What do you want me to say?" he said after a few moments of contemplation. He honestly didn't know what he was supposed to tell her even though he had an idea of what he was going to; that all got thrown out the window when she managed to succeed in sneaking up on him.

She gave him a half hearted shrug. "I don't know. You tell me," she said fluidly. She had locked eyes with him, he unable to even dare pull his eyes away.

He nodded slightly and gave her a once over glance. "I see they've," he cleared his throat, "rid you of your impalement," he said as he walked over to the door he was standing near before she caught his eye.

_Of course. He would say that, out of everything he could've said, should've said…and he picks that one._

"I've still got the arrowhead stuck in my leg. Apparently they were too stupid to bring someone on board who could perform surgeries properly," she exhaled, remaining where she stood, most of her weight on her uninjured leg.

He nodded once more but remained silent.

"Will you talk to me?" she said, losing the hardness in her voice.

"I know not what to say. No matter what excuses I could concoct, nor explanations of the truth I could spill will be to your satisfaction, I feel," he exhaled in defeat.

That one stung her.

"Loki…" she said barely above a whisper.

He forced himself to turn back to her. His emotionless face dropped when he saw the look on her face. She didn't hate him like he thought she would when he first left her there at S.H.I.E.L.D that day. There was something else there instead. Something he feared to see.

"Are you capable of walking over here?" he asked quietly, tearing his gaze off of her once more.

"Why?"

"So I can get a good look at you without having a bench crowd my legs," he answered fluidly over his shoulder. He glanced at his faint reflection in the glass before looking at the ground at his feet. He hardly even heard her footsteps, and he silently figured that she would have been quieter had she not have to limp around on a bad leg. He looked up at her when her feet came into his view. He studied her face before looking away and stepping towards the glass. "I did not intent to have to abandon you that day," he spoke softly with a kindness that wasn't present when he was speaking with Romanoff.

"Then what was that?" Orthani spoke back with an equal tone.

He hesitated. "It was for your protection." As soon as the statement left his lips he locked his gaze with hers. "You were safer here."

"And you couldn't tell me that?" she spoke desperately. "You couldn't have warned me I was going to be left there to die because it was _safer_?" She had more hurt in her voice than anything else. Anger wasn't even present, which he guessed he should have been thankful for, but this was almost worse in his eyes.

"Orthani," he said her name for the first time in ages it seemed. "I did not know until the portal opened that day. I did not know what was to expect until that portal opened and I looked upon the blackness, the bleakness that was staring back at me and I realized you would not be able to follow…" he trailed off. He was just as hurt as she was, he felt. "I am so sorry I left you on such awful circumstances." He put his hand up to the glass, just trying to get her to understand where he was coming from.

"Loki, had it not been for a guard who had the decency to drag me out of that place, I would have died anyways…" she told him. "They could've run and saved themselves and left the poor girl who so foolishly broke into a government base to die as her punishment, but instead they dragged me out. Had they not had the decency to save me…?"

"You are alive, Orthani. That is all that matters to me as of now. You are alive, and you are safe because you were protected by the ones who once hunted you. It was better than what I could have asked for at the time," he said to her.

"But if I wasn't alive? Had you taken me with you, then you could have made sure I was safe instead of leaving my fate in the hands of predators."

"You would have been tortured if you had gone with me. If you only knew of what I had to endure in order to make it back this far," he shook his head slightly. "That sort of torture…it turns you, it changes you. I could not bear to see you suffer in the hands of these creatures I now work for."

"Are you saying I'm not strong enough to-"

"I was thrown to the Chitauri every time I spoke ill; left beaten, battered, bleeding on the ground until I managed to hoist myself up and run back to the Other to beg for his forgiveness. I was tossed about, abused to the point I thought myself to be broken in spirit at times," he began rattling off to her small glimpses of what he had gone through.

"And I would have been there to help you," she said firmly.

"They would have killed you the moment you landed on their territory," he retorted.

She couldn't find any words to say. She simply tore her gaze away from his and shook her head slightly. The entire mood in the room was thick, dense with emotions left unspoken and untouched.

"It was very clear to me once the torture commenced that I had done the right thing, Orthani," he practically whispered and her gaze was pulled back to him. "You have been too kind to me. I could not bear live with myself had you gone with me to such a dreadful place and had to experience the pain and suffering I once had to." He rested his left arm above his head on the glass and kept his right hand pressed to the glass at level with his chest. "It was not betrayal; it was to protect you from harm, my dear. I cannot begin to express how deeply hurt I am that I had to leave you so terribly." He noticed a single tear swiftly slide down her cheek without warning, her eyes not even so much as really watering.

"Do you know how long I've gone without answers?" she managed to breathe out. "Do you know how long I've had to wonder if you were leaving me because I had no other use to you or if you were just using me to get what you wanted?" She grasped onto the railing closest to the cage he was being kept in. "I assumed I had been deceived, that I had been played this entire time."

He closed his eyes and pressed his lips into a thin line, exhaling quickly before looking back to her. He couldn't think of anything to say.

"Do you know how much I've had to play that one time over and over in my head and had to think to myself 'was that all fake? Have I been emotionally lied to since that day?" she continued on.

He immediately knew what she was talking about. That time when he hadn't returned by the time she got back. The abandoned warehouse, in the back of her SUV, those few moments he felt as if he actually had more of a purpose to him than just living in someone's shadow.

He felt a sharp pain in his chest and he slammed his fist against the glass and turned around to start slowly pacing around his cage. The noise made her jump. She watched as he walked, obviously agitated slightly by something.

"Don't tell me that was all just a lie," she spoke above a whisper this time so he could hear her. "I'll admit, maybe I'm just overanalyzing things, maybe I looked at it and took it the wrong way, but…" She heard him exhale so she stopped talking.

"You took it exactly how it was intended…" he said, turning back around to face her. He saw her eyes close as she exhaled in relief, but there was still that hint of hurt hidden within her features. "Had it been intended otherwise, why would I be standing before you as vulnerable as a lamb for slaughter as I am now?" he said as he walked back over to her. "Had I been deceiving you, I would not be trying so desperately to make amends with you now. I am not the person who would so willingly speak to a woman with his heart on his sleeve, but here I stand before you doing just that. That. Was not. And never will be a lie," he said heavily, locking eyes with her. He started speaking in barely above a whisper again. "I swear to you on my life that was as real and as truly intimate as it felt."

She watched him as he spoke, a part of her wanting more than anything to catch him in a lie so that she could have a reason for tossing him aside. If she could do that, she could save her heart from more than just heartache throughout this war. She couldn't spot anything that told her he was lying.

"You can deceive anyone you wish; how do I know you aren't lying to me so that you can sweet talk me into letting you out of there?" she said in disbelief. Normally, even in movies, it was never that simple.

He gave a hint of a smile and again rested his arm on the glass just above his head and pressed his other hand to the glass. "I do not wish to deceive you."

Her heart softened instantly. Her eyes darted away from him, almost not believing the words had just come from his mouth. Just minutes before she had started talking to him, he was there grilling Romanoff to tears, manipulating her, twisting her mind into believing the lies he spat through his teeth and now here he was before her, being as kind as when he had met her, if not kinder. He had killed so many people already, he had worked his way into the minds of her coworkers, he had an army on the other side of the universe waiting for him to open the portal to start a war against the Earth. Yet, here he was, standing before her with a humbled look on his face, looking at her with eyes that could capture her soul. He hadn't tried to make excuses, he didn't try to point out what would prove him to not be lying, he simply said he did not wish to deceive _her._ He didn't want to lie to her, he didn't want to trick her. He would go around, causing mischief and chaos, deceiving just about anyone who he thought deserved it, but she was the exception.

"You have surprised me, Orthani Mynx," he snapped her out of her confused look. "From the moment I offered to take you along, I thought you would be worthless, unable to carry yourself with pride and dignity. I never thought you would work to fight as fierce as warriors, or move as though you are but wind silently rushing through trees. You've done more I considered you were ever even capable of accomplishing," he said with a smile on his face. "I'd be a fool to deceive you and abuse your trust. I would most certainly be a fool to let another claim you as I wish to do myself."

She rested her forehead on the glass, just wanting to be able to actually put her hand against his instead of having a giant glass door in the way. "I don't think I would have it any other way."

He smiled. _That is all the approval I need, in that case._ "I have told you this once before. I wish to have you sit beside me as my queen."

"Loki, I don't want to rule the world," she said in a shaky voice as she lifted her head up to look him in the eyes.

He put up a finger, signaling her to hush. She grew silent almost instantly. "I never spoke anything about ruling any world, have I?" he smirked. "I believe your previous statement is enough approval for me to now, in Asgardian terms, proclaim yourself to me."

She burst into laughter. "What? I agreed to nothing!" she exclaimed, pretending she had no idea what he was talking about.

"You walked into that one with open arms, Orthani, don't pretend otherwise," he said with a coy smirk on his lips. "You and I both know this would eventually happen. Had it not, you would not be standing before me with such a forgiving heart and an open mind as you are now. Might as well make use of it now until fate tells us otherwise, hm?" He cocked his brow. "As evil a villain as I've been made out to be, I do think I should have the hand of a dangerous woman who is just as equally beautiful as she is frighteningly deadly standing at my side. It only seems fit."

The mischief in him had definitely returned, she concluded. She rolled her eyes and dropped her gaze to the floor. "Those are some powerful words there," she cocked her head to the side.

"And I don't speak them unless the person I am addressing has proven themselves worthy of them," he gave a small shrug and looked over the top of her head as he continued speaking. "You've done more than that. To let these idiotic humans utilize what I have challenged you to become would be the knife to my throat. Now, should I continue talking circles around you or will you pledge yourself to me?"

_He's bold, I'll give him that much._

"You are absolutely atrocious," she jabbed at him playfully.

He gave her a stunning smirk. "Along for the ride now, are we?" He narrowed his eyes mischievously.

"I don't think I have much of a choice."

"You always have a choice, Orthani," his smirk dropping slightly. "Shall you not wish to, I will not force you, though I refuse to let your talents fall into the hands of these barbarians. You are far too great for that. The fact you have ensnared me to the point where I cannot resist? That is an accomplishment not many have acquired."

She looked down for a moment in thought. "Alright then," she bit her lip slightly as she met his gaze once more. "I'm still not letting you out," she told him, making him chuckle.

He put his hands up in defeat. "I have not asked you to do so. That would compromise the point here, I do so believe."

She rolled her eyes playfully.

"Where shall you go from here?" he asked her, putting his arm back on the glass.

She gave a light chuckle. "I can't go with you, if that's what you're asking," she shook her head, dropping her gaze to the floor. He furrowed his brow, and when she looked up, she noticed. "Nick will kill me the second I go with you. I don't know about you, but I'd love to stay alive long enough to be able to make it through this war," she said passively.

His warm expression dropped. She watched it fall right before her eyes and she could already tell what he was thinking. "I'm not betraying you, Loki."

"He's got you on such a tight noose that even with the threat of relocating you and locking you back in a cage, you still bend to his every will," he felt a sneer creep up his nose. He dropped his hand and backed away from the glass wall.

"What choice to I have?" she barely whispered as he turned his back to her. "I'm not immortal, Loki. I can't just parade around doing whatever I want."

He knew she was right. He exhaled slowly and all his frustration vanished. "Forgive me for being rash. I have missed your companionship more than I…expected." He closed his eyes and waited for her reply.

She felt her good leg start to grow weary and she knew she had to get off of it before she just fell over. She used one of the guardrails to assist her in sitting down on the platform, but she still ended up twisting her injured leg and sent a brief shock of pain up her spine. She inhaled sharply, but then managed to sit down next to the glass door.

Loki turned around after hearing her hiss in pain. He saw her on the ground, her bad leg stretched out as to not make her injury worse. He gave a moment's thought before he slowly walked back over to the glass and sat down as well, angling his torso that it faced hers, and resting his shoulder against the glass.

He then realized that at that point, she didn't need to be anywhere else but right there with him. Chaos would soon erupt in the ship that could very well cause several fatalities and he didn't want her to be in any danger whatsoever. She had already been put through enough suffering at his hand, and he didn't want to cause her any more.

"Will you promise me this?" he mused in thought before looking over to catch her eye. "I ask you this for your own safety. I do not want to see you die because of me, is that clear?" he gave her an inquisitive look, and she nodded.

"Do not leave this room."

"Loki, if I don't get back to my hospital bed, they'll put a bullet in my skull. I'm already pushing my luck here."

He gave her a stern look. "Orthani, listen to me. Something is about to happen here, and this is the only place I am certain you will be safe. If I was asking you to cross your Director, I would be requesting you to free me, and I have not yet asked it of you, not once," he reasoned with her.

"That doesn't mean anything-"

"This is the closest I've been to you in ages and yet the only thing keeping me from you is this door," he pointed out to her as he cut her off. "It is taking me every ounce of my self control to not demand you let me out, for I can only take so much of this; being able to have you so close yet always out of my grasps." He started tracing the glass where her arm was resting up against on the other side. "It amazes me how only after being away from this despicable planet for such a brief time has made me come to realize just how fond of you I have grown. It's rather alarming, actually," he furrowed his brow and continued drawing circles on the glass with his finger.

She looked up at him and gave him a weak smile. Their faces could've touched one another had it not been for the glass that separated them.

"I do have your trust, correct?"

She nodded.

"Enough trust that I might be able to do anything to protect you from harm?" he rephrased his question.

"As long as it doesn't get me killed, then I trust you with my life."

* * *

**A/N:** I think I've edited and then reedited this chapter at least 15 times or so. Posting these kinds of chapters always gets me nervous, I don't know why. Possibly because I fear people hating these chapters and the way I write them. I dunno. x.x

Bah, anyways. THE REUNION! About time, huh? x)

**clusterlizard1:** That's actually where I got that from. Good ol' Mad Eye Moody. I couldn't think of anything else besides that for the whole training thing, so I figured why not.

**Jayc Black:** Thank youuuu so muuuuch!

**yumixjaganshi: Oh my god, don't die! **Here, hopefully this was enough to satisfy you until the next chapter comes out.

**Loki: **I didn't want to quote the movie too much. I tried to put it in, but I couldn't find a legitimate way to actually have Orthani in the act to where it would actually seem believable. x.x Otherwise, it'd totally be in there.

**4everYoung93:** Oh my god. ;-; _Thank you so freaking much, I love you for saying that._ Honestly, that just makes my day so much. I honestly really do appreciate that, seriously. I kinda don't know what to say.

**R. M: **I hope the reunion was good enough! D: I kinda worry about these chapters not living up to the hype it's apparently caused. I didn't want it to turn out too happy sunshine and puppies, but it didn't need to be extremely dark either and my brain was like "Can't handle." So I do hope this turned out to be better than what you expected.

**Vulcan Lily: **That just made me sigh in relief. I was hoping I had made it somewhat believable and that Orthani wouldn't turn out to be a total Mary Sue that everyone ended up hating. x.x Good to know I pulled those ones off and can check that off the list. x)

**Cat-Natty: **I actually wondered that in the theater while watching the movie. I never saw a pilot jump from the helicopter, and I just thought I'd put something mentioning it in my story. And thank you so very much for reading it! And reviewing. Because yes, I do love reviews x) Helps motivate me to write more.

**SilverTongueLoki:** I'm glad you still like it, even with the whole Twilight deal. =D And the decision of which side she chooses will come soon. Within the next few chapters, actually.

**Anonymous:** Oooh trust me. It's gonna get interesting once that happens.

**RainbowDash11:** I'm a hero? Really? =D

**Lowri:** Ah, thank you so much (again...I think) =D Glad you're still keeping tabs on it.


	21. Chapter 20: The Grand Escape

She felt the ship take a sudden lurch and alarms started echoing through the halls. She tore her eyes away from Loki and looked around her, a nervous feeling gnawing at her stomach.

"It is nothing to fret about," Loki said, trying to ease her nerves. "It is but my escape from this tragedy you call a ship," he smirked as she returned her gaze to him.

She gave a playful scoff. "Don't tell me you've doomed us all," she rolled her eyes, not really feeling like she was actually in danger whatsoever.

He shook his head. "Of course not. This is just an attempt to scatter Director Fury's team and allow me to escape from his confines. It is, however, a delicate plan; should I have overestimated the intelligence of him and his crew, we could all very well be dead before this craft hits the ground," he said as he tapped the glass a few times with his fingers absent mindedly.

"I'm sorry?" she raised her brow.

"I thought you to trust me?"

She looked into his emerald eyes and nodded. "Of course I do."

"Then you have no reason to fret." He was already plotting and planning what his next move was. He had worked out everything up until this point, but since he very well knew that plans such as extravagant as this one never worked out according to such plans. _I must take her with me. The last time I left her, I had no knowledge of her state and I refuse to let that happen once more. _"Will you follow?"

"What?"

"Will you follow me? Once my men walk through those doors and set me free, will you follow?" he explained to her, eyes locking with her and not letting her look away.

"They'll kill me in a second should I go with you, Loki," she sighed.

"They will kill you once they see the footage from that camera over in the corner. Do you honestly think the Director would allow you to continue to fight from his side when you've so willingly walked through that metal door to speak to me?" he said with narrowed eyes. "I trust you, therefore why should he trust you?" He was only pointing out the truth.

"I was actually restrained in a hospital bed and your brother came in to talk to me," she stopped him before he got any further. She saw the snarl grace his lips and then slowly fade. "Don't give me that, Loki. Thor was the one who let me out and told me to come talk to you. He said he'd take the fall from Fury," she told him.

His snarl vanished completely. "Thor sent you?"

"He didn't send me; he said that I shouldn't leave you. He didn't want me to go and betray you and just be another mistake," she corrected him quickly. "He didn't want me to choose a side. He wanted me to make amends with you, and still keep to S.H.I.E.L.D's code. I never wanted to be caught in the middle of this war in the first place, but picking a side will be just as bad if not worse. Your brother giving me this chance has made it possible for me to still play on both sides here. "

_So my brother is looking out for me; taking care of his adopted brother…_ Loki thought, shifting his eyes to the ground. "I never wanted this…" he said softly, knowing the camera couldn't pick up his voice at that level. "This war?" He never got to complete his thought, for the roar of…something…pierced through the air. He looked up and let a wide smile curl across his lips.

"The beast has awoken," he said in a menacing tone, standing up to walk over to his bench. "In due time, I shall be set free. Do you wish to go with me, or shall I leave you here in hopes that the jaws of S.H.I.E.L.D shall spare your life?"

Orthani exhaled roughly. "Leave me. I shall deal with them, but just as long as you know that I'm not breaking that promise I made you," she said, attempting to pick herself up off the ground by using the guardrails.

"And what is that, dear?" he held his chin up as he sat down on the bench.

"That I won't go back on my word. I won't stand on their side, I won't stand on yours, but I will never fight against you. Just promise me this," she stood up straight and used the guardrail for support.

He raised his brow, indicating he was listening.

"Don't give them a reason to kill me."

He lowered his chin. "I swear on my life that they will not get to you."

Suddenly the ship lurched, and the all familiar feeling of falling from mid air took over.

"I really hope you know what you're doing," she said as she slowly started limping for the door.

"I thought I told you to stay?" he called out to her, making her stop in her tracks. "The first time I left you, I knew not of your fate. I refuse to see to that again."

She sighed and gave a smile. "Fine then. You win. Only until you get picked up, though." She said, leaning against the railing.

_Actually, I believe I have different plans, my love._

At that moment, the two doors opened and in walked two S.H.I.E.L.D guards with machine guns strapped to their shoulders.

"Ah, took long enough, hasn't it," Loki hummed as one of the guards went to the computer to open the doors to the cage he was being held captive in. He stood up and waited at the door.

Just as the doors were sliding open, a loud "NO!" startled everyone. Thor went running for his brother and jumped in an attempt to tackle him. Loki reacted quickly and stood like he was preparing for the hit, but then Thor flew right through him. The image of Loki faded as he reappeared besides the control panel.

Thor jumped up just as the doors closed on him and looked around wildly in confusion. He made direct eye contact with Loki.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki said smugly in taunting him.

Thor let out a grunt and swung Mjolnir at the glass of the cage, it only leaving a good crack but yet shaking the entire room. Loki waited for the quake to end then smirked widely.

"The humans think us immortal," Loki said as he turned his back to the cage and walked over to the control panel.

"Loki, you-," Orthani tried to reason before he put his hand up to cease her talking.

"Should we test that?" Loki gave her a look before turning his attention back to Thor.

_He wouldn't…_

She didn't even have time to process what was going on before the guard who was standing behind her fell to the ground and she suddenly felt her bad leg being yanked out from underneath her.

She didn't even feel herself hit the ground. All she felt was the excruciating pain of the arrowhead still lodged in her thigh grind itself deeper into muscle. She couldn't help but let out a yelp as she hit the floor and then started writhing in agony. The gritted her teeth and groaned at the now constant throbbing of pain coursing through her leg. The white bandage she had wrapped around the hole in her leg slowly started to turn red.

"Move away please?" she heard Coulson's voice say. She looked up at Loki with pain written all over her face and watched as he slowly backed away from the controls. "You like this?" Coulson said as he stepped over her body, ignoring the fact he had just caused her even more damage to her leg than what was already done. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the destroyer. Even I don't know what it does."

Orthani was lying face down on the ground but had her eyes on Loki, her hand clutching her now reopened wound. She was breathing heavily from fighting off her urges to scream out to ease some of the pain and she could feel the bandage soaking up the blood. There was only a small amount of blood staining the top layer of the bandage at that point, but they had wrapped it several times over the wound, which didn't make that a good thing.

She heard a weapon being turned on and a noise indicating it was charging up. "You wanna find out?"

She groaned and put her head down on her arm, wincing as she fought off another wave of searing hot pain that washed over her as the tip of that arrow pulled at tiny muscle strands and such in ways they shouldn't be pulled, which eventually led to them being broken.

Just as the groan escaped her lips, she heard the familiar sound of something being shoved through human skin near her as well as a cry in pain echo off the walls. She quickly looked up to see Loki standing with the scepter shoved through Coulson's chest.

"NO!" Thor roared, slamming his fist against the glass in protest. The Loki double that was standing over by the controls slowly faded out of existence as Loki pulled his scepter from Coulson's chest, the claw now brilliantly glistening rubies from Coulson's blood.

Thor watched in a silent horror as Loki slowly shoved Coulson to the ground and then turned to Orthani, who was still lying on the ground trying to not scream out. He knelt down next to her and turned her so that she was lying on her back.

"Do you trust me," he whispered, an emotionless face plastered on his features.

She couldn't speak; all she could do was nod.

His hand shot to her thigh where her wound was now bleeding from and he squeezed her leg, hard. Her back arched as she screamed, the pain from that unbearable. She curled up in the fetal position at his feet as he continued to clutch her wound with a vice grip, her body twitching in agony.

Suddenly, she went silent, and her body went still.

_Did he not kill her?_ Thor thought to himself as he watched Loki's eyes flick from Orthani's limp figure to him _So this was but a game all this time?_

He watched as Loki stood up, blood now glistening on his hand from Orthani's wound. Loki kept his eyes on his brother with a hungry for vengeance stare as he walked back over to the control panel. He watched as he pressed a button, and the vent below the cage opened its mouth. Air rushed up the passage, filling the entire room with a soft growl of rushing wind.

Thor's breathing was heavy with anger, terror, and even panic from what was about to happen. Loki watched as he backed away from the glass and looked down wildly for an explanation as to what was going to happen. He pressed the button without looking, and then watched his brother fall down the chute and plummet to a most certain death, and if he escaped death, it would be sure impalement.

He closed the small plastic case covering the button for the cage drop with a soft click. He turned to head towards the door.

"You're going to lose," he heard Coulson croak from where he was resting up against the wall.

He forced himself to hold in a scoff. "Am I?"

"It's in your nature."

Loki was laughing on the inside at the man's absolute blatantly stupid nobility. "Your heroes are scattered. Your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?" he said snidely.

"You lack conviction."

His cocky expression fell instantly and was replaced with a sneer. "I don't think I-"

His gun went off and sent him flying through the wall behind him in a ball of fire. Loki laid there for a moment, waiting for the air to return to his lungs and for the smoke to clear off a bit. He picked himself and stared Coulson down, wanting to retrieve his scepter and plunge it through his skull this time. He let out a growl and walked back through the wall, picking up the scepter that was lying on the metal grates in front of the control panels. He smoothed out his clothing with the same, terrifying and psychotic snarl on his face that was present when he was speaking with Natasha.

"I refuse to play your foolish games," he said as he slowly advanced towards Coulson.

"You still won't win."

Loki let a snarl growl in his throat before he turned on his heels and started heading for the door. He suddenly stopped and looked over his shoulder at Orthani now lying on the ground.

She wasn't dead, no. He had used a spell to rid her of her pain temporarily and send her into a deep sleep, but it did nothing to stop the bleeding. His angry face softened.

_Should I honestly honor her wishes and trust these sniveling, incompetent fools to tend to her as she so rightfully deserves?_

No. He couldn't. The last time when he walked away from her, she was in perfect health and not lying on the floor slowly dying. He couldn't leave her here, especially since he had just rid S.H.I.E.L.D of the god who promised to take blame for her being out of her place.

_I swore to her they would not get her. _

He made the scepter in his hand vanish in thin air and swiftly walked to Orthani's body, still limp with sleep. He carefully scooped her into his arms, trying not to shift her to where that arrow would do any more harm. Before Agent Coulson even had time to speak, he made his way out of the room and headed down a passageway that would lead to the top airstrip without passing any of the S.H.I.E.L.D guards that he had no control over.

One of his men approached him as he hopped up on the flight deck. "Sir, this way. They've almost got the turbine back up." The guard started leading him towards their getaway aircraft

He had no idea what that meant, but he knew it wasn't ideal in their escape. "They cannot stop us at this point," he growled, trotting towards the jet. "Where's Barton?" he shot over his shoulder.

"The Widow got him, sir."

He silently cursed to himself. "Leave him. We must go," he ordered as he climbed into the back, the jet being almost identical to the one he had arrived there on.

The rest of his men followed him in and the jet took off, the door closing as it caught air. Loki had put her on the floor of the aircraft, she still unconscious and bleeding through her bandage.

"Who is that sir?" one of his guards asked as Loki looked her over with compassionate eyes. Yet, that look quickly vanished.

"I don't recall giving you permission to talk, soldier!" he snapped, his eyes darting to the one who spoke. "Tell me, did you get the Tesseract where I sent it to?" he asked, drawing attention away from who he had taken from S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Yes sir, it's sitting at Stark Tower with Selvig, sir."

"Good," Loki nodded and put his focus back on Orthani. _At least I will have no other use of these bumbling idiots once I am taken there._ "Take me there. You will drop me off, return back to our base of operations and you will wait there for further instructions," he ordered.

"Yes sir! We'll be there in 10 minutes."

_Must they always have the last word? _He thought annoyed. He kept his eyes on her, not wanting to take them off in case something happened. He noticed her bandage was soaked with blood and he figured she was still more than likely bleeding slightly underneath it. _She is not immortal; if her blood loss is not controlled…_

He grabbed onto her leg again as he did before, this time not squeezing her half to death like before. He closed his eyes and focused his energy onto that one spot trying to just heal it enough to stop the bleeding. When he got to Stark Tower, he would heal her completely, but for the time being he just needed to keep her from losing too much blood. From his forearm down to his fingers, his arm started to glow a gold hue as his magic wove itself down to her wound and sealed off the hole in her leg. He didn't close the entire wound, just enough to stop the blood.

He gave it a few seconds before he took his hand off it, once again his hand covered in her glistening blood. He didn't wipe it off like he did before; he simply let it sit on his hand until he was dropped off at Stark Tower. When they had landed on the very top of the building for him to get out, he once again picked her up and carried her off. He took her into Stark's overly extravagant dwelling place and set her down on the floor gently. He had to heal her; he couldn't stand to see another look of torture on her face should she wake up still crippled and helpless.

He unsheathed one of her daggers from her waist belt and sat down next to her, looking at his reflection in the blade. He glanced at the bandage soaked in blood and determined that whoever had been kind enough to bandage her up in the first place had cut a big enough hole over the wound that he could cut the bandage without having to remove anything. Had it not been the case, he would have just healed her through the bandage, for he didn't have the time to do much else.

He exhaled and sliced the bandage in half, pulled it off, and tossed it aside. _I do apologize, Tony, for-ah wait, I don't actually care about the state of your quarters._

* * *

"Agent Romanoff, you said you had Barton with you?" Nick spoke directly to Natasha over his radio.

"Yeah, we're in the medical wing. I've locked us both in the isolation chamber. He'll be under restraints until I know Loki's out of him," he heard her reply swiftly.

Nick nodded. "Copy that. Let me know when you release him," he ordered, afterwards putting the radio in his coat pocket. He went to talk to Steve and Tony to try and give them some sort of motivation to actually get the team to work as a team before rushing down to where the medics had taken the body of Agent Coulson.

He passed the room where he saw Romanoff and Barton, Clint still tightly fastened to the bed with the Velcro restraints trying to fight off the rest of Loki's mind control. He continued down the hall to go and retrieve Coulson's things until he just stopped walking.

_We only have one isolation chamber with bed restraints…_ he thought to himself. _And I remember restraining and locking Mynx in that one room myself…_

He turned back around and made a beeline for that one room. After punching in a pass code, he swung the door open and Romanoff turned her head to face him.

"Now where the hell is my Agent, Natasha?"

She furrowed her brow. "What are you talking about, sir?"

"I remember handcuffing Orthani Mynx to that very bed myself just four hours ago," he said, pointing to the bed Clint was now in.

"This room was empty when I got down here…" she trailed off, looking up at Nick with a puzzled expression.

"You mean to tell me she is running around here loose?" he widened his eyes, speaking in a dry sort of sarcasm.

Natasha didn't answer him.

"Keep your radio on, I might have a side mission for you in a moment or two," he told her, closing the door behind him. He took out his radio again. "I need all security members who have eyes and can walk on both feet to team up and sweep the ship in search of Agent Mynx. I don't care if you're bleeding from your ears, I need you on your feet and searching for her," he relayed over the mass security system. "I expect you to find her and report back to me."

After two hours, she still hadn't been found.

"Now, I know she's good at hiding, but no person alive can hide so well even our security can't find her after sweeping the entire goddamn ship with a fine toothed comb," Nick cursed, folding his arms in front of his chest and watching as his Avengers commandeered a jet and headed for Manhattan.

"Maybe she left, sir," Agent Hill spoke up from behind him.

He nodded. "Get our communication up with that aircraft. I have something to tell our two assassins," he ordered, bringing a hand to his face in contemplation.

"Communication is up, sir," Hill answered, showing him on the computer screen.

"Good, get me on the line in that aircraft," he said as he pulled his radio out of his coat for the billionth time that day it seemed.

Hill typed something into the monitor and then nodded. "You're connected to their communication, sir."

"Agent Romanoff, and Agent Barton, do you copy?" he spoke clearly, and then went silent waiting for a reply.

"Agents Barton and Romanoff, we copy."

"Agent Mynx has vanished on us, and she isn't on this aircraft. If you see her, kill her. That is an order." His voice proved that he wasn't messing around.

Silence fell for a few seconds.

"I can't do that, sir," he heard Clint relay back. "I've already shot her once when I was under Loki's control. I refuse to do it again. She's still my partner, regardless of what you think she's doing."

Nick exhaled in frustration. "Agent Romanoff? Do you comply?"

There were another few moments of silence.

"I copy sir. Kill Agent Orthani Mynx on sight." He could tell Barton wasn't happy with her answer by the way he heard a low growl in the background.

"Good. I can't have her fucking us up any more royally than she already has."

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! I didn't think that chapter was going to be so well receipted,so thank you sooo much! I love you guys, especially if you're still reading after all this time. x)

Ok, so if you can't tell, we're slowly coming to the end of the Avengers movie. Which means this story shall soon be coming to a close. I know, it's kinda sad. HOWEVER. I have decided to tell you this now, why, I don't know. But I had an epiphany last night and I think I could possibly do a sequel, completely of my own ideas and plot and stuff, and pull it off and have it be epic. However, I'm going to leave that up to you. If you want to see a sequel, then let me know from this point out at any time, and if I see enough people want to read it, I'll go ahead and start writing it. It's very Marvel-esque, I will say that much.

So yeah, this isn't over yet! Just hold on for the end of this one as well; it's gonna be a strange ride. O.o

**Alzu: **Aw, thank you! I try and keep my posts around the same time, which is around 10 am Central time. (I have no idea what it is for Global and I'm too lazy to figure it out x.x) so it you hang around your computer around that time, then I will normally post around 10 to 11 ish give or take. Maybe even earlier on some days.

**Angie007:** Jealousy is an interesting thought. A jealous Loki.O.o I don't know if I could handle myself at that point.

** Jayc Black: **What? I managed to pull of a compassionate Loki without sounding like a moron? xD And thank you, really. That means a whole lot to me, honestly.

**R. M: **Glad I was able to meet the expectations here. x) Thanks again!

**anime0angel:** ;-; Oh my god, I'm speechless right now. Thank you. So freaking much. I don't think I can say that enough. I'm absolutely flattered you'd say that about this story, holy cow.

**ALittleLoser:** Ehehehehehe. I hope this update answers your question.

**Captain Cynthia: **You are totally forgiven. And thank you for being such an avid reader from the get-go. =) And you get props for being the first one to call my story epic. x)

And with the whole choosing a side thing, you'll sorta see how it all plays out when the Tesseract opens. The chapter after this one will be the one that really explains the whole 'choosing a side,' and I doubt it'll make everyone all sad.

**LadyRae19:** Thank you! I'm so happy that people think it was believable. With Loki, it's hard to tell. x.x

**TheMagentaColor: **Oooh boy, then you're gonna be on the edge of your seat every time I update. x)

**LJ:** Yay! Writer Success! WOO! Haha, sorry, had to say that. THANK YOU KIND PERSON. (Why that came out like Thor said it, I have no idea. O_o...awkwardd...


	22. Chapter 21: Two Hearts Collide

Pain. That was all she felt was excruciating and unbearable pain. Enough to make her curl up in more than just agony, it made her writhe underneath his hand. And on top of that, he didn't stop. He didn't let her go even when she curled up in absolute terror and misery; in fact, he probably squeezed her wound harder.

This would be the only time she ever felt threatened by him; the only time she was genuinely scared of him. Never had she imagined he would do such a thing to her, yet here she was crying out in her affliction and he wasn't even listening. She was absolutely terrified.

_Stop, god Loki, please stop _she tried to speak, but her words ended up failing her.

All Orthani could remember feeling was an overwhelming feeling of pain take over her body completely before she blacked out, though she could also remember a faint sensation of a searing hot warmth envelope her leg before spreading throughout her body just before she faded into unconsciousness.

She didn't know how long it had been when she started to come to. Her head was now fuzzy and she was unable to get her thoughts together as she tried to place herself in her surroundings. Her mind had shoved what had just happened to the far reaches of her memory, and she had to dig to find them. She hadn't yet dared to open her eyes in fear of what she might wake up to: a jail cell in a S.H.I.E.L.D detention center, a hospital bed somewhere on land where she was once again restrained so she couldn't escape.

She tried to get her mind to come to her, just trying to remember what had just happened. She had been on the flying airbase with Loki, right?

_Come on brain, work with me,_ she thought, trying to pull her memory back together. _He and I were…down at the Hulk's cage, yeah. The air base was…falling? Hold up, am I dead?_

She heard the clink of a glass being set next to her on a hard surface.

_Nope, not dead, ok. Think, Orthani, think. What did Loki do…he…he had Thor locked up in that cage…he…killed Agent Coulson!_

She suddenly sat up with a gasp, her eyes flying open as she did so. She looked at her surroundings, not recognizing anything around her. She was lying on a couch in what looked like to be a pent house high in the skylines of what looked to be Manhattan from what she could see out the giant wall of glass in front of her. There was a bar to her right and a giant walkway made of black marble that led out to a balcony.

She looked to her left and saw a black coffee table, and on it was a whiskey glass. She furrowed her brow and looked harder, still trying to piece together what had happened. She saw red smeared inside the glass as well as a few smudges on the outside. She picked it up and held it at eye level. Inside was an arrowhead covered in blood and even a few small bits of skin and muscle caught in the barbs.

"It took me slightly over an hour, trying to pull that from your skin," a monotone voice snapped her thoughts and made her jump slightly. She turned to see Loki standing just behind the couch she was sitting on.

"What?" she said hoarsely, her throat sounding scratchy and it hurt slightly for her to talk.

"I have healed you," Loki said, clasping his hands behind his back. "It took 45 minutes for me to actually pull that from your leg with magic, another 10 to close your wound to where the injury has practically vanished, and then another 5 to return the blood you lost."

She stared at him for a moment, just trying to let his words sink in. Suddenly, the thought hit her like a train. "I told you to leave me at S.H.I.E.L.D!" she exclaimed, suddenly jumping up off the couch and setting the glass back down with a loud clink. "You sent me into agonizing pain just moments before I passed out! You killed Coulson, you…Thor! Did you drop him?" she frantically started grilling him as she slowly walked closer to him.

Loki didn't answer her, he simply let her exclaim in her confusion as she got closer.

"Loki, answer me!"

"The heroes have been scattered, yes. Not killed, just scattered," he said quietly. "I had to do something to rid you of your pain, which was the only way I knew how-"

"Do you know what I just went through, Loki?" she yelled at him. "Rid me of my pain? Rid. Me. Of. My. PAIN," she emphasized. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Orthani, there is no need to yell."

"I know you said to trust you, but at that point Loki, I was looking into the eyes of an absolute monster…"

His eyes looked up from the floor. "It was the only way I could get you sedate as quickly as was humanely possible. Had I not done so, you would have been under insufferable pain for hours until the effects of the magic took over. It was the only thing I could do," he said just barely over a whisper. "It was to quicken the process. Healing is not a fast form of sorcery; simply sedating one in order to get them calm enough for someone to cure their ailments takes time that we did not have. Had there been any other way, I would have taken it." His eyes filled with a guilt that almost made her feel bad for yelling at him.

"Please, don't ever do that to me again," she whispered, simply standing in front of him with a pleading face. "If you have to, at least warn me before hand so I know you aren't trying to kill me…"

He gave her a half hearted smile. "Hopefully you won't be needing it," he said simply.

"And why did you take me?" She lifted a brow in question.

"Orthani, dear, must you always talk so-"

He was silenced, for the first time in a very long time, simply by the look she gave him. He stopped speaking mid sentence and closed his mouth briefly before answering her without any other resistance.

"Had I left you in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D, you very well could have bled out where you lay had I not taken you along with me."

"Loki, they'll think I've turned."

"And what is better, not having Thor to rescue you from your supposed treason against your Director once he found you lying next the very place I had been held in?" he lightly snapped back at her. "The cage that was gone, dropped from a height enough to kill the demigod he had on his side? The first thing he would do would be to assume you were the one who released me in the first place," he took a step towards her, hoarding into her personal space. "You were dying. I have no faith in those petty humans who call themselves healers. They would not have treated you properly with the utmost care you deserve. I could not leave you in their care without knowledge that you would be alive by the time this war ended. Not again."

She froze, knowing he was partially right.

"I could not leave you. Not then. Not now. I finally have you back within my grasps and was again forced to choose between leaving you in the hands of those who put you in a cage, and the other of seeing to your safety at my side. The choice was obvious," he dropped the snippy tone and put his hands on her arms that were hanging down at her sides. "I understand if you are angry at me for this, but do understand that I am only doing what is in the interest of keeping you alive and by my side."

She stared at him, eyes locked in the other's gaze before she bolted to make their lips collide with the other. She had wanted to do that since he had so effortlessly won her over whilst he was locked up in that cage. All of her emotions that had boiled up to that point, both good and bad, had finally come out. It was an emotional release; her brain could now think clearly instead of being clouded by all these distractions and such.

And by god, it felt wonderful to her. That first time she had kissed him was just to get him to shut up such a long time ago. This meant something right from the start. Her heart was finally in the right place and she knew it wasn't all just a dream or a lie. He was there in front of her, giving her exactly what she was giving him in an equal amount of passion, the same level of intensity, yet with a league of gentle and tameness that proved to her he still had a heart no matter how beaten and tattered it was; and with each time their lips would part and collide, tongues would twist and turn against each other, she would only grow weaker under his spell. She was enchanted, spellbound, however else one would put it. In love? Not quite, but definitely getting there.

Oh, she could drown herself in him and die happy. How she had managed to be the one who caught the eye of a god was beyond her, but she didn't take that for granted. Not for a single second. Every moment she had with him at this point was worth more to her than anything, especially with the war just hours away from beginning. With every kiss, with every hint of a smirk that she felt curl on his lips as he returned to her the affection she had been craving for since he left her, she could live on forever without it ending.

He was half expecting it, her to make such a bold move. She had done it once before, so it wasn't too much of a shock to him that she had managed to catch him off guard like that once again. This time was different, though. Just as the time which seemed like so long ago, there was passion, almost like there was a need for her to feel his own actions against her in order to trust him fully. However, the shock of having so many emotions swirling through his chest as their lips and tongues collided made something inside of him break. She had become his weakness; any ounce of compassion and mercy he had left in his blood went to her and her alone.

He brought his hand up to the back of her neck and the other went to rest on her hip. He slowly walked her backwards those three steps until she backed into the couch she was once asleep on. She ended up sitting on the back when Loki took that extra half step to press himself to her. She felt his hand glide down to where she once had the wound from the arrow and traced her skin through the ripped leather of her outfit with the tips of his fingers and it made her shiver, bringing goose bumps to her skin where his fingers grazed over.

He felt his own subconscious take over as his hand dropped from her neck and traveled down her side to snake its way to the small of her back, his fingers barely grazing her skin with a feather light touch. He pressed her to his torso and pinned her leg to his side, and then slowly but surely started peeling away the hardened layers surrounding his all but crippled and broken heart. He could afford to let her in, but no one else. She had fought her way to make it this far with him; if he did not let her in after such a daunting battle when she was so deserving and ready for it, he'd be outright insane, not to mention the fact she made him feel as though he had somewhere he belonged and had more of an expectation to live up to rather than to just live in the shadow of another. He had been taught he was a monster; she made him feel no less than what he thought he always was before his life was revealed to him as a lie.

It had been far too long since the last time he had been with her like this; far too long since he had been with her in any way, really. Those days where they had run rampant on their own, just wandering around searching for answers had long since past but by Valhalla did he wish they had lasted a little longer. He wished _this_ would last a little longer.

"You're going to get me killed, Loki," Orthani said swiftly when they had broken themselves away for a split second.

He withdrew reluctantly. "I will not. I promise you I won't let that happen," he said with a sincere look on his face. "If you die, I die as well. Fair?"

She didn't necessarily agree with it, but she nodded. "Fair."

He gave a faint smile before lifting her chin up to gently brush his lips against hers and then wrapping his arms around her, holding her to him. He couldn't feel it through all his Asgardian armor, but she had her arms wrapped around his chest.

They stayed, locked in the embrace for what seemed like an eternity before Loki caught a glint of light off in the distance out amongst the towering buildings of the city. "You must go," he forced himself to say, not yet letting her out of his arms.

"What? Why?" she asked as she felt him kiss the top of her head and then release her from his grasps.

"Your Metal Man is on his way back to his fortress," he said, keeping his eyes on the skyline through the windows. "If he finds you here, surely you'll have no chance to be able to explain yourself to your Director."

Her eyes widened. "We're at Stark Tower?" she said in shock.

He smirked and nodded slightly. "Now go. The Chitauri are coming, and there is no stopping them. I want you no were near this city once that portal opens, am I clear?" he told her.

"I'm not ditching the city when it's about to be invaded by aliens. Then I'll really look like a coward," she told him.

He lifted her chin up with his hand. "That does not make you a coward. That makes you intelligent. Bravery is not necessarily the only way of life that brings you honor."

"I'm not searching for honor. You should know that by now."

He nodded. "Then go and find your green beast," he said. "I believe he has managed to wonder off. Should your team want to have a fighting chance, they will need him. And Thor, though I doubt he will need help finding his way." He took hold of her hand and brought her knuckles up to his lips briefly.

"I thought you wanted to destroy the planet with one quick blow, not drag this out," Orthani furrowed her brow slightly.

He smirked. "Sorry, I believe I've had a change of plans," he narrowed his eyes slightly. "You seem to have quite the ah…" his eyes darted down to her lips briefly before flitting back up to her eyes, "persuasive tongue, shall I say." He cocked an eyebrow and watched her with smoldering eyes.

"Since when have you started playing that game," she raised her chin up slightly.

"I believe when you started playing it," he said smugly with that cocky smile on his face.

"Good answer," she chuckled, only to have him kiss her again.

"Hey Jarvis!" she called out once Loki walked away from her and headed towards the glass.

"I do not work for you," Tony's computer answered back flatly.

"Aw, come on, Jarvis, just a little favor?" she pleaded.

_I'm begging a robot for a favor. That's new._

"I am not authorized."

She exhaled and turned towards Loki, who was struggling to hold in a smirk. "Hush. It's not that funny," she said as she rolled her eyes. "Come on, just find out the location of Banner for me?"

"I am not authorized, miss."

_Damn._ "Well Selvig's got you wired up to the Tesseract and he isn't authorized either," she pointed out.

"That was a forced override of protocols, not a request, miss."

"Well then force override your protocols and find Banner for me."

"I told you I cannot."

"Come on, you and I both know that if Banner wondered off somewhere, Tony's gonna be looking for him when this portal opens. You can either help me get to him faster and avoid the destruction of this planet, ooor you can just be shut down like the rest of us. Pick your poison," she rattled off. Tony was an easy guy to predict, she thought, so here she was trying to win over a robot with common Tony-sense.

Jarvis remained silent for a moment. "I will have his location momentarily." One of the smaller of Tony's tablets turned on and started whirring to life as Jarvis worked to pinpoint where the Hulk had gotten off to. She smiled in her success.

"Come to me before you set off," Loki motioned for her to walk over to him. She did so, also grabbing the dagger Loki had left on the coffee table after he had healed her. "Do not let this," he flicked his hands in the air and his scarf he wore when he was in his human attire fell into his hands, "leave your possession." He hooked it over her neck and let it hang off her shoulders.

"Why?"

"The Chitauri will overlook you. They've recognized my scent and since I am leading them, they have been ordered to not attack me. It shall give you enough time to run past them should you so choose to," he told her, looping it into a loose knot over her chest. "Should you step too close to them, they shall see right through it; but if you keep your distance, you should be fine."

She nodded, thought for a moment, and then spoke up. "Could you put some sort of enchantment on it?"

He gave her a puzzled look.

"What? I won't wear this unless I have some use of it in combat. At least make it super durable so I don't destroy it while trying to use it to choke one of these guys," she sarcastically joked, giving him a devious smirk.

He had to fight back a smirk of his own as he slowly took it from around her neck. "That would be a sight worth seeing," he said, balling up the fabric in his hands and then watching as in started faintly glowing gold before going back to its normal color. "The Bringer of Death by Scarf. I doubt that is something anyone has ever seen."

She smiled and took the scarf from his hands. "No, I just don't want to end up getting it destroyed in the mayhem," she rolled her eyes and folded it in half and secured it to her belt at her side.

"Bruce Banner's location has been identified," Jarvis interrupted their conversation, and the screen to the small tablet lying on the bar started flashing.

"I guess that's my call," she gave him a weak smile.

He nodded and clasped his hands behind his back. _Are farewells always this awkward? I don't remember them ever being so…_ "Do be careful. Don't run yourself into trouble that you cannot face alone," he exhaled roughly.

"I'll be back before you know it," she turned on her heels to grab the tablet Jarvis had so graciously allowed her access to and then walked down to head out the fire stairwell so that people wouldn't stop her in the lobby and ask her how she got in.

He watched her as she sauntered out, his nervousness growing in his stomach. _Please do. I cannot bear to stand her and wonder the condition of your safety. _He walked out onto the balcony, knowing the Metal Man would be there within minutes to probably threaten his progress. He could only hope that Selvig had managed to get the Tesseract to sustain itself by this point.

* * *

"Jarvis, could you by any chance give me something to drive in? This place is 20 miles out," Orthani spoke out loud, hoping that Jarvis was wired up around the entire building.

"You're asking for quite a lot, miss."

"I know, all in the name of science. Well…you get what I mean," she shook off her terrible pun and started to slide down the railing of the stairs.

"Don't pretend I don't know you're there, Ghost," she heard Tony's voice on the computer tablet she was holding in her hands.

She froze.

"Tonyyyyyy, I was just going to get-"

"Banner, I know. I heard. Don't get him angry, please, if that's what you're planning. There's an old motorbike of mine out in the back you can use. Hopefully you at least know how to use one."

_Oh boy. Here we go. _

"It is at your disposal as long as you tell me one thing," Tony made a proposal. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She smiled and continued her climb down the stairs. "Stark, I'm choosing a side."

She heard him scoff on the other end. "And that is?"

"My own."

* * *

**A/N: **A bit of love before the world ends, hm? x) I had to, they hadn't gotten much of each other for a while. =P

Ok, so here's the deal. My laptop's literally on it's last leg, and I'm going to be getting a new on for my birthday, which is literally in less than a week, so hopefully I'll have it on Thursday. Unfortunately, the one I'm on now has charging problems and it's difficult to get it to charge. The keyboard also just went really funky, so if you see any missing commas or apostrophes or periods or even words that have no spaces in between them in the review answers, I'm sorry. x.x

That being said, if the laptop I want my dad to get me happens to not be at the store, he'll have to order it and I might have to go without an update for at least two days, maybe up to a week or two once I get the ones already queued posted. I AM SO SORRY FOR THIS. I literally feel terrible, but I can't write without a working laptop that'll last more than two hours on battery and will charge while I'm using it.

HOWEVER. I'm writing things by hand on a notebook that I'll transfer over to my new laptop and post as soon as I get it. So expect a few days where I can do double posts, and then we'll get back to our normal schedule. I promise. =) I'll try my best to continue typing things up and getting them on the site until the switch happens though.

As always, don't be a stranger, and stay cool!

**Catt-Natty: **x) Well, so many people are wanting a sequel, so I guess I'll be writing one.

**The End That Wasn't: **I sorta just made it up. x.x I take interesting names and switch a few letters around. I know I got kinda grilled on her name at the start because it was one of those "strange names that turn the reader off to your story" sort thing, but I have to create names that are sorta strange, otherwise I can't get into the story too much. That and it makes it to where you don't have a preconceived persona for her when you start reading, because there have been times where I've had a same name to another fic and it ruined my ratings. So really Orthani came from my own mind. The Mynx bit is just because I kinda like the Egyptian-esque feel to it.

**Azalia Fox Knightling: **It has that effect of she has the threat of completely changing the game. And thank you so much, that really means a lot x)

**Angie007: **Oh god, I don't think I could do that. Every story I've read so far that has a sequel, it's all about getting pregnant or cheating. I'm not gonna let that happen. Loki really isn't the daddy type (except for Sleipnir and the others x)) and I'm setting this up so that he won't ever take her for granted ever again.

And yes, I'm following the plot of the movie entirely.

**malloryhowlett: **Oh why thank you! =D I have a sequel outline in the works as we speak, so yay for that x) I don't think I could get interested in the story if Loki got bored with her. I can't really picture him getting bored with someone who supported him so much throughout the entire story =/

**Mistress Serah: **Aw, thank youuu! I have to reply to my reviewers! They've so graciously taken the time out to say something and to read my material, so it's only right to reply to all of you guys, even though its been taking up a large amount of space, haha.

You know, so many people have complimented my writing style that I'm actually considering changing my major so I can be a writer. That's how much you guys have affected me with this. So thank you.

**Lyndi: **Loki is definitely worth crushing over. x)

**howlingwindofthestorm: **Hell yeah, doing the sequel! =)

**Captian Cynthia:** I update fast because I have no life. xD And it's all good, it's all good. I love reading from my readers; it sorta inspires me to keep on writing.

**Pumpernickle: **Let me love you. Seriously. Oh my god, thank you so much. That made my day yesterday seeing that.

**1heartgirl: **Yay! Another avid reader! =D Thank you! And I shall keep it up! -salutes-

**HiccupingHippo:** You saying my characters were incredibly accurate made me do a victory dance. x) Seriously, I never think I can get even close to characters already portrayed in movies, but at least I've made it believable. But THAT comment really made me feel proud, so I thank you so very kindly.

**LJ: **Haha, hi thar. =D

Blink! It's bad for your eyes to stay open like that. x.x

**TheMagentaColor: **Don't you fret, she isn't dead. xD The rest of what I want to put here would spoil the rest of the story for those reading, so I can't say anything. She won't die...or will she...nah...weeeelll...No. x)

I'm just being cruel now, so I'll shut up. xD

**love marvel films: **Thank you =) I'm super glad you enjoy it. Sequel's happening, since I got such a huge wave of people asking for it. (And by huge, I mean 4 or 5 I think. Normally people never review stories this much, so I'm treating every request highly. =))

**Centinibron: **Thank you, and done. =)


	23. Chapter 22: Atta Girl, Ghosty!

When Tony didn't say another word to her, she assumed he was done. Maybe he would relay that back to Nick Fury, maybe he wouldn't; but at that point she didn't really care. She had to go and get Bruce Banner back from whatever warehouse he had crashed himself into, and how he got there, she didn't know.

It would make for an interesting ride back, though.

_Great, this is my ride?_ She winced at the sight of an old looking dirt bike. _Tony Stark, man of a billion dollars and he gives me a crappy little bike that could barely be any better than a moped? Really Tony?_

She growled and swung her leg over and brought the bike to a start by pulling down on a kick starting clutch on the back of the bike with her foot. After she clamped the tablet to the body mount in front of her, he kicked the motorcycle off after she turned it on and sped off down the road towards the factory outskirts of town where Jarvis said his location was.

Traffic in Manhattan at that point was a nightmare at that time of day, however. She barely got three blocks from Stark Tower before she ran into the start of afternoon rush hour. She was forced to stop.

"Jarvis, reroute, will you?" she asked, tapping at the screen of the computer tablet. "I don't need to be drawing attention to myself, and just speeding through this in between is a little more attention that I would like," she said.

"Of course," Jarvis answered her from the tablet, and then promptly started reworking another route for her to go. "Would you like a traffic route, or shall you wish to make your own?"

She smirked. _Tony trained this thing well._ "How about the quickest one?"

"The backstreets it is then, miss."

* * *

On Tony's end, Jarvis was letting him listen in to everything happening. "Keep an eye out on her. Don't drop her GPS location and don't let her go anywhere besides to get Banner and bring him to us, got it?"

"But sir, hasn't Director Fury put out a green light for her death?"

_Always bringing up everything._ "Yeah, I know. Nick Fury is an ass who has no idea what he's doing," he said dryly. "As long as you keep me posted on her location and she doesn't wind up where she isn't supposed to be, she's not a threat for anybody but the aliens. So keep me posted."

"Of course, sir."

Tony rolled his eyes and started to approach his tower, his thrusters in his suit cutting in an out from part failure. His suit had taken quite the hit from him jumping into that turbine and getting it back up and running. If only the Captain had pulled the lever when he told him to, maybe he wouldn't be having this problem.

"Sir, I've turned off the arch reactor. The device is already self sustaining," Jarvis told him as he flew up to the Tesseract.

"Shut it down, Doctor Selvig."

* * *

It took her a bit of time to work through the intricate path of backstreets and alleyways Jarvis had instructed her to take to get out of the town, but as soon as she jumped one last fence by using a wooden board leaned up a giant garbage bin to get over it, she was out. She almost didn't make the landing without wiping out, since she wasn't used to riding a bike like that, but she steadied herself before she shot down a dirt road towards the factory she had been tracking. It was a long dirt road, but it was almost a straight shot to where she needed to go at that point.

She didn't even get two thirds of the way down that path before she saw Bruce walking towards her, wearing completely different clothes than he had before. She saw him put his hand up and start waving her down like he needed a lift.

She got closer to him and then drifted to a stop just in front of him.

"Orthani?" he furrowed his brow in a puzzled manner. "What? How'd you find me?" he asked her as she cut the engine to the bike off.

She smiled and tapped the tablet on the front of the bike. "Tony sent me. Well, I sorta sent myself, but Tony helped." _Eh, that was a half lie, but what he doesn't know won't kill him._

"Ok, hold on, hold on," he put his hands up and took a few steps back. "Explain a few things to me, will you? One, did I hurt anybody up there?" he asked, referring to the S.H.I.E.L.D base.

"I wouldn't know. I only heard you yell once, and I didn't ever see you in your green form, so I'm not the one to be asking that question," she said, getting up off the bike and set it down on its side on the ground since it didn't have a kickstand.

He pressed his lips into a thin line. "Alright then, how did you get out?" he asked, putting his hands back down at his side. "I told you when I met you, the walls talk. Last I heard, you were strapped up to a bed with an arrow to the knee."

_Oh great, an arrow to the knee joke, how hysterically funny_ she thought to herself, rolling her eyes. "Some things are better left unanswered, Doctor Banner."

"Well, when you consider the fact that Fury had you strapped up for the suspicion of ruining his order of operations, some things are better left answered," he said smartly.

Suddenly, the ground shook beneath their feet, and the Earth itself made a loud echoing crack that rolled from the skyline of New York like thunder. Orthani turned to face where the noise came from and Bruce looked over her head to see what was happening.

A blue beam of light was aimed towards the sky way off in the distance, but it was close enough for them to see what was happening. A hole opened in the sky like something had ripped a hole straight through the ozone of the Earth. The portal had been opened once more, this time to bring an army ready to destroy everything in their path.

"Are you with Loki?" Bruce interrupted her daze.

"No," she said simply, turning back around to face him.

"Are you with us?"

"No."

Bruce nodded. "Then why should I trust you."

"Because I can give you a lift out of here-"

"You and I both know that even though you might be an assassin, all it takes is to get me angry and then suddenly, you won't be able to stand in my way, so why don't you try and convince me to not just take that bike and haul ass out of here?" he retorted smartly.

_Stark wasn't kidding about this guy, geez. _"I'm not going to play Fury's games anymore. That being said, I also don't want to see the world end today, do you?"

He smirked. _Quick, simple, straight to the point._ "So why not Fury?"

"He is just as corrupt as the rest of us." Bruce nodded in approval of her answer. "Are we gonna get out of here, or are we just going to keep bantering back and forth, stand back and watch the city of New York be baptized in fire?"

"What's your plan then?"

"Get you to the city limits. Then you're on your own. Tony doesn't want you to get angry quiiiite just yet, so if you want, I can see if I can clear a path for you to get to Stark Tower without something trying to eat your face off," she said, picking the bike up off the ground and starting it up.

"I guess that's as good of a plan as any," he said, reluctantly giving in and hopping on the motorcycle with her.

* * *

"What have I to fear?" Loki turned back to the Metal Man and taunted him, his stalling just getting under his skin now.

"The Avengers," Tony said while pouring himself a drink. Loki furrowed his brow in curiosity and Tony gave a sideways shrug. "It's what we call ourselves. Sort of like a team: Earth's greatest heroes type thing." He continued filling his glass.

"Yes. I've heard of them," Loki said smugly.

"Yeah. Takes us awhile to get any traction, I'll give you that one, but let's do a head count here," Tony paused for a split second. _Stall her. You've got to stall so that she can get Bruce here. We're dead in the water if we don't have him._ "Your brother, the demigod," he watched as Loki scoffed and rolled his eyes in annoyance. He took that as a victory, but kept his cocky victorious attitude inside his head. "The Super Soldier, living legend who kinda lives up to the legend," he started putting on the wrist bands he needed for Jarvis to be able to deploy the Mach 7 successfully. "A man with breathtaking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins. And you, big fella. You've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." He picked up his drink and started walking towards Loki.

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off."

Tony hid his expression behind a poker face. _Does he not know his little squeeze just went to find the Hulk for us? He isn't that stupid. _"You're missing the point here, there's no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Yeah, maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Cause if we can't protect the Earth, then you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

The smug look fell from Loki's face. He'd had it with this man's foolish games and stalling. He walked towards Tony with his staff at hand."How wil your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you?" He quickly charged the scepter and placed it right in the center of his chest as he had done with Barton and Selvig, along with a few other men.

It made a soft clink noise when it hit Tony's chest and then nothing happened. He furrowed his brow and tried it again only to get the same exact result.

"This usually works."

"Well, performance issues. It's not uncommon, one out of 5 ha-"

He wouldn't have it. Loki grabbed the man by his throat and threw him to the ground forcefully.

"Jarvis? Any time now," Tony gasped as he tried to get up.

Loki was quicker. He snatched him up off the floor and again grabbed his neck, lifting him up off the ground at least a foot."You will all fall before me!"

"Deploy! DEPLOY!" Tony yelled just before Loki threw him through a window, which shattered on impact and sent Tony somersaulting through the air towards the ground.

He heard something power up behind him and swirled his head to see what was happening. He didn't even have time to react to the red and gold flying metal object that shot itself from what looked to be a closet and nailed him right in the face. He was forced into the ground.

_Did he really?_ Loki thought as he quickly picked himself off the floor and stood back up. _That man, by Valhalla, I want to kill him. _

"And there's one other person you've pissed off." He turned to see the Metal Man had returned, sporting a shiny new suit. "His name is Phil."

Just as Loki raised his scepter to send off a shot of pure energy at him, Tony sent him flying with a blast from his own suit, sending him careening into the bar.

The sky suddenly cracked with what sounded like thunder, and the Metal Man looked up directly above him instead of rushing to Loki to finish him off.

Loki gave a smirk. They had arrived.

"Right. Army," he heard Tony mutter before shooting off to try and stop them.

* * *

As they sped for the city, Orthani and Bruce caught a quick glimpse of red suddenly vaulting towards the city at top speed.

_Thor. He survived, that's great,_ Orthani thought to herself as they watched from just outside of the city as strange looking creatures on what looked like to be extremely advanced Sea-Doos whirring around the city shooting everything in their path with plasma guns.

"I really hope you know what you're doing!" Bruce yelled as she skidded to a halt, the bike's engine suddenly dying from the strain.

"Look, you need to go and find some place to lay low!" she yelled over the loud noise and the chaos. She stepped off the bike and started running towards the center of New York.

"I thought you said you were trying to bring me TO this battle, not hide me from it!" he exclaimed as he took control of the bike's steering.

She stopped and turned to face him. "Look, you're the Avenger's biggest asset. You're the big guns! You need to lay low!"

"How does that even make any sense?"

She ran back over to him. "You wondered what side I'm on, right?"

He furrowed his brow. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Strategy. What is happening now, these guys can handle it no problem. This isn't the entire army he has, Bruce. There's more, I guarantee you," she told him frantically. "You need to lay low. These guys are smarter than they look-"

"Then why are they flying right over us," he interrupted her.

She smirked and grabbed the hanging ends of the scarf she had tied to her belt. "Loki made sure they would overlook me. At least from a distance. Look." She let go of the scarf and restarted the engine to the bike. "If the Avengers send you out now, the Chitauri will quickly realize they need to focus on you and ONLY you until they bury you into the ground. If you get taken out this early, everyone will lose," she pointed out as she walked back to the front of the bike. "As a secret weapon, you need to _stay_ a secret until the time is right. Otherwise, it's absolutely pointless."

Bruce nodded, finally seeing her logic. "Does Tony know about this?"

She shook her head, thought twice, and then grabbed the tablet that was latched onto the bike and threw it to the ground, shattering it into tiny pieces.

"He wouldn't agree with me. He'd immediately think I'm just trying to keep you down and away from the fight so Loki could win."

"And are you?"

She paused and gave him a smile. "If I was, I wouldn't have gone to get you in the first place," she said before turning around and walking down the middle of the street through the now empty cars in front of her.

"Will you give me a signal or something?" Bruce yelled after her.

"I'll fly over you. Get as close as you can to the bank 6 blocks across from Stark Tower, and you'll definitely know when to go!" she yelled back, hopping onto the hood of a car and unsheathing her two daggers from her belt.

She watched as Bruce rode past her, heading to the location she had just told him. She smiled, knowing that she had gained another member's trust, or at least partially. She watched as a group of Chitauri started flying down the street towards her and she stood with bravery as they started shooting their guns. The cars that were in front of her started exploding, and she waited. Waited for the opportune moment…

When the car just in front of the one she was standing on went flying a good few feet up in the air, she moved. She used that car and the momentum already built up to jump onto one of the vehicles the Chitauri had and she climbed up, instantly shoving her daggers into the head of the Chitauri holding a gun. She pulled out the blades from his skull, shoved him off, and then jumped up to the driver that was attached into the vehicle and plunging the blades right through his skin near his spine. She tried to see if that was a way that would allow her to control the thing easily, but it only wobbled slightly.

"Nope, you've gotta go," she shook her head, kicked his back with both feet whilst still hanging onto her two daggers, and then wrestled him off as the thing fell to the ground. "This is my ride!" she said comically and then jumped to the handles of the aircraft.

_Yep, just like jet ski surfing, except without the water, _she smirked to herself as she managed to figure out how the thing operated within a few minutes of tinkering around with stuff. She took off, flying to watch over the battle as it raged on around her hoping she could at least make sure it was a fair fight for the Avengers.

This was what made her the neutral player. She refused to make any sort of advance on Loki. She wouldn't try and reach the Tesseract, nor would she try and shut it down. That would be interfering with the situation and betraying her promise to Loki, so she didn't dare do that. She did, however, plan on fighting off these monstrous beasts and assisting the Avengers should she see them stuck in a rut.

That was her plan. That was her side. She was neither one nor the other. Since her loyalties could very easily tip the scale when it came to who was going to when this war, she made herself a neutral factor. She was no longer caught in the middle with that decision. She was playing all sides from the middle now.

* * *

"Sir, Agent Mynx's GPS location has disappeared," Jarvis reported to Tony as he worked to try and slow down the flow of Chitauri coming from the portal.

"What?"

"It's gone, sir. I think she smashed the computer you were using to track her location," Jarvis repeated.

"Stark, we're at your 3 headed northeast!" Natasha's voice came over his communications.

"What, did you stop for drive thru?" he jabbed at their lateness to the situation. "Swing up park, I'm gonna lay them out for you," he ordered, a slight panic to his voice.

Jarvis muted the communications line he had with them after he gave Natasha and Clint the order.

"Sir, do you think she's gone rogue?" Jarvis asked him.

He glanced up as he started leading a group of Chitauri towards his little trap. He caught sight of Orthani on a hovercraft just to his right.

"Hold up, let's see what she does."

He watched as he flew right over her and turned his head to watch her crash her commandeered hovercraft into the lead of his pack of Chitauri. She jumped from it before it actually crashed into the oncoming craft and went flying straight to another one, immediately using her daggers to get rid of its riders and commandeering another ride.

_Atta girl! _He smiled, shaking his head at what he had just seen. _That's how it's done; with grace, style, and pure badassery_ he thought as he faced back forward to continue leading those that were still following right to Barton and Romanoff.

* * *

_Holy Jesus, thank you GOD for letting me live through that_ she thought, sighing in relief that she managed to actually pull something of that scale off without screwing it up. She took control of the hovercraft just before it started falling from the sky since it no longer had a driver and took off once again. She let herself catch her breath and allowed her heart to slow down a bit before she jumped back into the fight.

As she rounded the corner of a building, she came to face one of S.H.I.E.L.D's jets. She skidded to a halt in the air as she watched it go by her, make a turn, and then head directly for her.

_Ooooh god, please no._ She held her position as she waited for the first sign that they were actually heading for her. When the gun deployed, she snapped into gear and took off. She didn't have to hear the guns go off to know they were shooting at her. _Yep, I've got a target on my back, brilliant. Thank you SO much, Nick. Thanks. _She weaved in between buildings as best as she could, but the craft wasn't exactly good at turning on a dime. She needed more speed out of it before someone ended up shooting her down.

She looked behind her, the jet long since gone. It had turned back around, for some reason she didn't know of. She exhaled and started looking around the tiny ship for something that might help her.

* * *

**A/N: **After a bit of thought, I decided I could post this next chapter. =) I'm still pretty much working off a crummy laptop, so this will be the last chapter I can post until I get my new one because I don't want to leave you guys on a terrible cliffhanger. x.x

Oh, and no one is dead set against lemons, right? I'm curious...Not for this half of the story! The sequel, should my brain decide it'll fit in with the story.

**doctor-takemewithyou:** Yay! New readers! Wecolme aboard!

**anime0angel: **Awesome! I'll have another reader for that then, will do!

**PicklePickle17: **Yeah, you're probably right. 30 sounds close enough. And actually, the movie bits will end around 25, 26 ish. I'm letting the end bit lead right into the sequel really smoothly.

**Angie007: **Of course =) Anything for my wonderful and avid readers. =)

**TheMagentaColor:** They need to have more moments like that, I'll have to admit. xD Hopefully soon! Hopefully soon. This laptop's 5 years old, so it's about time it died a fiery death. The second I asked my dad to get me one, it's like it knew it was being replaced and it just started giving up on itself. xD

**Azalia Fox Knightling: **Hopefully the above update answers your question on Tony Stark, and hopefully it's highly appropriate for Stark's level of snark. x)

**HiccupingHippo:** =D You know, the fact that you said you were going to reread it makes me happy. x) I don't know why, but it did.

**E.Q:** Uuuuuh, I haven't thought about that really. I guess it's up to you, the reader to decide. Whichever has the more sentimental value in your eyes, I guess.

**The End That Wasn't: **Why thank you! I take that as quite the complement. I know from being on the reader side of things most of the time that waiting two weeks for a chapter update that's less than 2000 characters long is reallly frustrating. Especially when I can write twice that much in a day most the times. So I guess you could call me reader friendly xD

**Captain Cynthia:** We're just different kinds of writers, I guess. I've gotten to the point where Tumblr and Twitter just run in the background, and Youtubers aren't updating as much so I just sit and write until I see something new pop up on the screen. x(

And I'm totally happy that you think she's awesome. I've been plagued with worries over her becoming Mary Sue at one point and I pray that doesn't end up accidentally happening x.x

**Pumpernickel:** Ah hahaaaa Sleipnir jokes. Har har xD

**love marvel films: **I have this update! xD But yeah, I don't want to leave anyone on cliffhangers, so I'll be waiting until I get the new one and get stuff typed up and ready to go before the next post. Hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later, but if it is later, then you'll know I have a ton of chapters to type up and they'll be lots of updates x)


	24. Chapter 23: The War Rages On

"Natasha, are you out of your mind?" Clint raged as he turned the ship back towards their destination.

"I'm following orders, Clint! I saw her, so I shot at her. I'm not going to let her possibly take us down!" Natasha yelled back at Clint as he headed towards the fleet Tony was fleeing from.

"What on Earth makes you think she's trying to hurt us!" Clint said, lowering his voice slightly.

"She's driving one of those things, isn't she? Not a single one of those Chitauri things have gone after her yet. She's fighting against us, Clint!"

Clint ignored her. He knew Orthani better than Natasha did, so he refused to answer to her absolutely ridiculous accusation.

"Come on, Clint! Don't tell me you still trust her after what she's done to us already," Natasha said as she turned her attention to the fleet she was shooting at.

Clint exhaled roughly. "It might seem strange, but I still trust her to know that she knows what she's doing," he said calmly. He watched as suddenly Ghost reappeared in his sights from behind a building, her hovercraft now missing its second half and moving at a much higher speed and precision than the others that the Chitauri were riding.

_Why does she always have to do that, break things in order to move so much quicker and with so much more agility than everything around her?_

Natasha tried to shoot at her again. Clint already knew she was going to before she actually did it, so he angled the nose of the jet in a different direction. "I know you want to carry out Fury's orders. I don't know if she's done something to you personally or not, but I refuse to let you take her down while in this jet whether you like it or not. So stop."

She hesitated before pressing the button on her control that made the gun withdraw back underneath the belly of the jet.

"Stop fussing. I did the same thing with you, Nat. Sometimes, you've got to make a judgment call against those who tell you to do something," Clint said as he flew the jet towards Stark Tower.

* * *

"Yeeah, that's much better," Orthani said to herself warily as she continued flying out into the main street. She had taken the two tiny 2 ½ inch blade daggers from where they had been tucked in her boots that she kept for cases if she ended up losing one of her main beauties and had planted them into the craft in two strategic places. One had caused the second platform that was trailing behind her to disengage and unattached itself from the main half and the other was to disable the safety it had when she would jump off of it and it would immediately cut all power to the machine. Since she had lost the extra baggage and had disabled the crafts ability to cut itself off without a driver, she was able to actually use the junky thing to her advantage now. She did this mainly to be able to outrun the others if she got to close to them and they managed to sniff out her disguise.

_Why didn't they just build them like this in the first place?_ She questioned herself. _They would've taken the entire city down by now if they had tiny little speed cars that flew around shooting plasma. Who was the idiot that designed these?_ She continued her thought process as she shot towards Stark Tower after the S.H.I.E.L.D jet. She hovered in mid air a good distance away as she watched the jet put out its weapon again and take aim for something that the jet was blocking her vision from seeing. She watched as it suddenly banked to its side, smoke erupting from one of the wings as it slowly started to descend.

She saw Loki and Thor battling it out on the balcony of Stark Tower. She smirked. _Loki, you son of a bitch_ she thought as she shook her head and zoomed towards where the jet was slowly crash-landing. She watched as it slid on the ground, destroying the concrete it had landed on as it came to an abrupt stop, and she hovered over the destroyed jet as she waited for its passengers to emerge from the rubble. _Come on, get out, guys. Get out,_ she felt a sense of slight panic rise in her chest as the Chitauri started landing on the ground and brought out their guns, readying to storm the streets on foot. She exhaled as she saw both Clint and Natasha climb from the back, and then gave a sigh of relief as the Captain emerged as well.

_Huzzah! _She silently triumphed as she then rocketed towards the Chitauri that were now gathering in the streets. She started opening fire on them with the craft's plasma gun as she rushed down the street. When she got to the end where there were civilians still running for cover, she turned back and headed towards where the Captain, Natasha, and Clint were now taking cover behind a flipped taxi cab. She shot at those monsters that were trying to rush to them, taking a few of them out for them.

She heard something make contact with her ride and she looked back to see Natasha shooting towards her. When she looked forward again, she had to quickly move to the side and out of the way of a hovercraft that was heading directly towards her rapidly.

_And now is when we bring in Bruce,_ she thought, turning the craft around on a dime and whizzing towards where she told Bruce to stay until she gave him the signal.

The sight was kinda funny to her, actually. Around the entire city, people were screaming and running for their lives, the Chitauri were hungrily walking the streets, and here was Bruce Banner, just chilling out right at the mouth of an alleyway right beside a bank on a motorcycle with the calmest expression on his face. He looked like a child, innocently watching what was going around him.

She laughed as she slowly lowered the hover down to the street in front of him. "You look ridiculous."

"I feel ridiculous," he said, looking up at the sky and tightening his grip on the handles of the bike.

"Well suit up, big boy. We've got a war to rage," she told him, keeping the hovercraft maybe two feet off the ground.

He smiled. "You know, for someone who is apparently not wanting to pick a side, you sure are helping us out a lot," he said as he started the bike up.

"Well, I don't want to watch the world end, but I also don't think Loki deserves to die when his actions were caused by the ones who raised him. You can't blame the victim," she gave a sideways shrug.

"God knows I've heard that phrase too many times," Bruce chuckled as he walked the bike out into the street.

"Go on. Smash to your heart's content," Orthani joked, lifting her chin up a bit.

"If you say so!" Bruce took off towards where the Avengers had assembled on the street.

Suddenly a loud roar made both Bruce and Orthani stop. He brought the bike to a halt and she froze mid ascent, and they both looked up towards the portal. They watched in both awe and fear as a giant monster slowly made its way out of the portal, teeth bared and ready to tear down anything in its path. They watched it until it was blocked from their view by buildings and that was when Bruce looked over his shoulder at Orthani.

"Go! They sure as hell need you now!" she told him, surging past him and heading for the tower. She watched as Loki jumped onto a hovercraft of his own and several of his army's fighters converged on him, following him like Air Force would fly in the V formation. She watched as they flew down the road the Captain and his crew were on and saw him open fire on the street, flipping abandoned cars and enveloping them in a sea of fire.

_Now he's just getting cocky,_ she thought, jumping into action as she sped down a road parallel to the one Loki and his sea of destroyers were going down. Had she not completely trashed the ride she was in to get it to go faster and be more nimble, she wouldn't have ever caught up to them to the point she could pass them. After she knew she had gotten ahead of them, she cut over to the other street and skidded the cart to a halt directly in their path.

Loki saw her four blocks up as he sped forward. He was kind of impressed at how bold of a move she had just pulled, especially since she only had herself and he had at least 10 of the flying beasts behind him. He felt a sneer fall on his lips as she didn't move and stood her ground. He had 10 seconds to make a move. _What is she doing! The nerve of such a woman._

He could have just shot her ride down or had one of the others plow right through her. It would teach her a lesson not to get in the way like she just did. Though he could see the look on her face from here, not in full detail, but he could imagine. Those eyes staring daggers straight through his heart said he was pushing his luck with her.

_Don't do it, Loki,_ she told him in her own mind. _This is crossing the line. Destroying things is one thing; not giving people a chance to run is a totally different ball game. _

He waited for her to move, but she never did. _She is still on my side, of course. As much as she is playing the middle ground, she will always be at my side should I need her. Blast her, she knows me too well. _He had gotten a block away from her before he changed his direction to avoid a collision with her. His men scattered in every direction, some flying over her and then turning around to reconverge on their leader. He went up to find another road to go blow up instead.

She exhaled a sigh of relief. He had listened to her. Sure, he was probably going to do the same thing he would have done here on a different street, but he had listened to her. It had been like a silent conversation; she wanted him to stand down and he did…to a certain extent.

"Come on, everybody!" she turned her ride to face the street packed with cars and people. "Get inside! Take cover! Come on, let's go!" she ordered, slowly hovering down the road a bit to get people to bolt into taking action. Once she saw to it that people were actually fleeing instead of standing in fear of what was in front of them, she turned to fly off towards where his group was circling the city like hawks as destruction rained down upon the people.

* * *

Loki growled in frustration. He knew she hated to see the destruction of her own people and that he might've been testing the line with her, but damn her she was frustrating.

He continued to circle the city from higher in the sky, he watching as the Hulk made it back to his sweet team in his non-green form. He watched as Orthani's little torn up hovercraft darted after him once she got the people running for safety. He heard the Chitauri grow restless as she approached him, probably seeing right through the whole scarf trick Loki had implemented.

"Leave her untouched," he said simply, and they quieted down even though they didn't like it.

"You know, I thought you were actually going to hit me there," she said as she drifted up to him.

He smirked. "I don't think I could even if I so wished," he watched her out of the corner of his eye. "All of you! Go! Get them!" he ordered as he slowed his own chariot down. The Chitauri behind him growled as they left him, leaving the two of them hovering in the air above Stark Tower.

"Care to tell me what that was about?" she asked him, pulling her ride up to his facing the opposite direction.

"Simply sending a message," he said while watching as the giant monster that was parading through the buildings suddenly made a sharp turn. "Are you going to continue guarding every street to insure the maximum safety of your people?" His eyes didn't leave the scene now unfolding in front of him.

"No. I can't stop you," she said, causing him to tear his eyes away to meet hers.

"You already did," he said, a puzzled look dawning on his face.

"If I used the fact that you choose to listen to me to my advantage, that'd be putting you on a leash," she said.

He smirked. It was another one of those strange references back to the times when they had first met.

"So no. I can't stop you," she reiterated.

They both stopped and watched what was happening down below when they heard a roar echo off the buildings before them. They watched as the enormous beast that was trolling the town suddenly brought to a halt, flipped over, and then exploded before their eyes.

He smirked as he watched their triumphant stance. So they had taken down the beast, and they really thought they could handle anything?

"Send the rest," he ordered, hiding the smirk from ever appearing on his face.

Orthani feared to look up, but she did so anyways. She watched as a whole fleet of the beasts emerged from the portal one by one without any signs of stopping.

_Oy vey_ she thought to herself. This battle was far from over. She watched as the Avengers looked up towards the portal and just stood there for a few moments, not really knowing what to do. She looked back up, only to see a group of the hovering Chitauri heading straight for her.

She gasped. "Sorry-got-to-go!" she yelled all at once, it coming out as if it was one word. She shot off towards the ground faster than the blink of an eye and Loki watched as she flew off to rid her tail of the Chitauri now bearing down on her. He then headed off with his own group of followers; off to search the streets to cause another massive wave of destruction. His Chitauri army was now pouring from the portal to rage into battle, now infesting the place with the chaos and destruction they were fully capable of.

* * *

She was weaving in between buildings to try and get rid of the Chitauri hunting her down, desperately trying to shake them off her trail. Most of them either went crashing into a building because they didn't make the turn or they just abandoned trying to get to her. The last one she ended up taking care of personally with daggers sunk into their skin.

She ran back to where the chariot she had 'customized' landed on the ground when she had jumped from it to the Chitauri behind her to end their chase of her with a round of sudden death. She jumped back on it and then stopped, deciding to watch the chaos that Natasha and the Captain were dealing with. They were being swarmed, and it amazed her just how well they were pulling off holding them back.

She rose up in the air, circled around and just watched, waiting for a moment that would give her an excuse to run in and help them. There was none, however. They were doing just fine on their own.

That was when Natasha spotted her above them, and she quickly zoomed away, not wanting to give her a chance to send off a few bullets in her direction. She went up to the top of Stark tower, watching the battle down below her. Thor had gone to the top of the highest building and had started to summon in the lightning, which he then shot off towards the portal. The Hulk was going nuts, destroying every Chitauri he could get is hands on all while violently jumping and smashing about in glee. Barton had taken to the roofs and had started sniping every Chitauri that got within his sights. Tony was the one that was wandering about, getting rid of the strays that made it past everyone else.

They were all working together for the first time. Even while she was so briefly working with them, they hadn't ever worked this well together.

She saw Natasha jump up and grab onto one of the chariots still being driven by two Chitauri, and watched in fascination as she managed to kick the first off and then take control of the second one to try and drive it. She winced when she just about drove herself into a building.

_Monkey see, monkey fails _she chuckled to herself. She watched as Loki was suddenly on her trail, following her and trying to shoot her down. She rolled her eyes and went to chase him down yet again to see if she could stop him just this one other time.

She stopped when she reached the building Clint was stationed on saw him with his bow drawn, it pointed directly at Loki. She brought the chariot to a halt.

"Oh nononono, please don't," she muttered underneath her breath as she watched the events unfold right in front of her. "Nononononono, Clint, please don't. Clint. Plea-CLINT!" she screamed as he let the arrow fly towards its target and headed right for Loki. She couldn't hold back that scream, even though she tried to.

She watched with bated breath as the arrow made its way to its target, which to her surprise caught it with his bare hands. She exhaled a sigh of relief and closed her eyes. That could've gotten fairly ugly really quick.

There was suddenly an explosion, and she opened her eyes to see Loki had gone flying and landed on the balcony at Stark Tower. She was fine with that; at least he hadn't fallen off and plummeted to the ground. Well, she was fine with it until she saw the Hulk fly in without warning and smash him through a window and right into the wall of Tony's pent house.

That was when things happened too fast for even someone who was paying attention to process properly. Just as Natasha jumped onto the very top of the Stark Tower, Barton got swarmed with Chitauri, almost like they knew he had attacked their leader and succeeded in dealing the blow to him. The Chitauri swarmed Orthani as well, who had at least three jump onto the hovering chariot and tried to take her down.

She jumped into action, of course, taking her daggers and sinking it into the first monster she could get within her reach. She threw that one off, and it plummeted to the ground as the chariot ducked and weaved from a loss of control and it drifted over Stark's Tower. She was doing fine on her own until one of them grabbed her and threw her down onto the roof and jumped down on top of her. She rolled out of the way before he landed directly on her, but only just. She kicked his side, jumped onto her feet, and then struggled with it until she was able to drive a blade through his toughened skin to silence his every move.

She crouched down to pull it from the monster's body, and then suddenly, all went black.

* * *

Natasha saw her land on the rooftop with her, and the first thing she thought of was she was trying to stop her from shutting the Tesseract down. She pulled out her gun, but then paused when she saw her roll out of the way right before a Chitauri drove something through her skull.

_She isn't as important as stopping this, Nat, _something inside her said, making her lower her raised weapon. _But I'm sure as hell not going to let her get away. _

Once she fought off the Chitauri and had slayed it, Natasha kicked her in the back of the head, knocking her out almost instantly.

_I'll deal with you later._

* * *

**A/N:** I got my new shiny laptop all set up today, so I'll be posting this chapter today, and then possibly spending the next few days getting everything I have written down typed up and edited, since when I write by hand I tend to not bother to elaborate at all. x.x BUT YAY, MORE UPDATES!

**Guest: **You know, that almost freaked me out until I realized I mentioned my birthday in an earlier chapter. xD But thank you so much!

**Limavaa:** I couldn't resist. I got halfway into writing that chapter and I couldn't pass up editing that in. x)

**TheMagentaColor: **My computer's weird. It was doing fantastic until it had the charging problems, and even then, it was still doing ok. Then I asked my dad for a new one and it was like it said "Nope, I'm out. I'm done, and I don't want to live on this planet anymore."

**Lime Toaster Cat: **I haven't disappointed you guys yet, have I? xD

And what was making you twitch? O.o I didn't really think that chapter was really scary at all...if that's the case, then you're in for a real surprise once I get through typing up everything I've written so far xD

**LuluCalliope: **Aaah, yes. x) I've gained another avid reader.

**Azalia Fox Knightling: **You know, I find it kinda funny how people always ask these questions that are always answered in the very next chapter. And it's even funnier because these chapters are already typed up and ready to go before you guys even get a chance to read the update before it. So hopefully the chapter here sorta sheds light on the subject you commented about in your review. x)

But then when I post, I look like an idiot, cause I'm always saying "Hopefully this answered your question," to everyone. xD

**Anon: **I'll try my best to keep him as in character as I can get. I don't see Loki as the sweet, overloving guy, so it definitely won't be that sort of lemon, I can tell you that as a fact.

I'll try not to disappoint. =D And if I do, I'll simply write the chapters around it to where you won't even notice a skip so I can delete it or something. xD

**Captain Cynthia: **I know she has her flaws, but I guess it's what I'm about to do that gets me worried.

Eh, I've said too much already. xD I guess if she starts turning a little too Mary Sue, send me a message telling me to get my act together, and I'll do something different.

**love marvel films: **Just opened it up and set it up an hour ago. =) Using it as we speak. I'm about to go type like a madwoman to get this material I have typed up and edited just for all you guys, my readers. Hopefully you'll enjoy where I've taken the story so far. x)


	25. Chapter 24: Mistakes and Heartaches

"Puny god," Loki heard the Hulk mutter as he walked away from the scene, Loki now lying in the ground where he had been repeatedly smashed into the floor like a ragdoll.

_Oh by Valhalla, I can't feel my entire body_ he thought as a groan escaped his lips. He didn't want to move. Or breathe, or blink, or anything. Though he tried to get up, and he instantly regretted it.

_Ah, well then. I did not want to get up anyways, so I shall just lie here…_

He let out another groan and closed his eyes.

_So this is how it all ends, hm? A leader, beaten and broken by a foul beast; left crippled and in pain on the floor whilst the war rages on. How poetic. _

At this point, it was still impossible he couldn't win. The portal was open, no one could stop it, and his forces were slowly overtaking the city.

He had nothing to worry about. Or so he thought. He had no idea how long he had been lying there when he suddenly heard not only gunfire, but also everything else going absolutely still. There were no sounds of the Chitauri romping around seizing the city. He heard no whizzing of flying chariots or screams of his army or the citizens as his Chitauri claimed their next victims.

All was silent. All was still.

* * *

"Wake up!" Orthani heard an angry growl above her head as she came back into consciousness, she also being violently shaken by something.

She sat up quickly and focused her vision to see Natasha glaring over her, gun drawn and pointed directly at her head.

Orthani sighed. "Let me guess. You've been sent to kill me?" she spat, the taste of blood stinging her tongue.

"How else would it end? Hm?" Natasha said in a calmer voice. "Nick says you've betrayed us all. I want to know why."

Orthani scooted herself up against the wall she had been cornered against. She had nowhere to run.

"I haven't betrayed anyone," she growled. She turned her head to the side and spat out a mix of blood and saliva. When she looked forward, she felt the barrel of Natasha's gun being pressed into her forehead. "I've played the middle ground. I wasn't on either side-"

"Then tell me why you weren't being bombarded! Tell me why you and Loki were having an adorable smooch fest while the rest of the Avengers and I took on the first real big threat! Tell me why you weren't down there with us, fighting your ass off like the rest of us!" Natasha snarled, pressing the gun into Orthani's forehead even more.

"That's the perk of being the middle player. Sometimes you get special benefits from being on both sides," Orthani smirked. "Besides, both you and I know you're bluffing," she chuckled as she hoisted her torso off the ground. "Seriously, you expect me to believe you carry enough cartridges to keep that thing loaded even after an alien attack? Please."

Natasha pointed her gun away from her and fired off two rounds one right after the other without so much as blinking. She then put the gun back to Orthani's head. "Convince me why I should disobey Nick's orders to kill you. Maybe I'll play nice today."

Orthani smirked. "You guys won. Why should another life be lost?"

"Because god knows what you'll do once I let you walk out the door." She cocked the gun and again pressed the barrel to Orthani's head.

Orthani only chuckled. _She won't do it._

"You just want to kick Loki while he's down. This isn't about following orders; this is about revenge. I saw how he treated you earlier today," she spoke, realizing exactly what was happening. "He ripped your mind apart, he abused the knowledge he gained when Barton was under his command. To everyone else, you can hide your face and your true identity. Yet he walked in and saw right through every lie you spat. You took him to be a fool and you got burned for it." She shook her head and chuckled. "Is this payback? Is it? He took your precious Clint and now he must be punished long after he's lost the war he started?" she raised her voice.

"I've got red in my ledger."

"Don't we all? Killing me in spite for Loki's misdeeds to you isn't going to change that! You've won Natasha! It's over!"

"That doesn't change the fact that you broke your contract!"

Orthani held up her hands in defeat. "Oh, well then pardon me for allowing Loki to protect me from you sniveling, power hungry agency. I wasn't even conscious when I left the place; Loki was the one who made the decision to save the girl bleeding to death on the floor of Hulk's cage!" she spat.

Natasha shoved the barrel to her head, causing Orthani to have to crane her neck at the pressure. "See, this is why Nick wants you dead. You aided a killer, you've stood by his side-"

"Because I love him!" Orthani screeched, cutting her off before she finished her statement. "I knew him before he became the monster he is now! I knew him when he had an ounce of compassion left for humanity! Sure, he wanted to take over the world, but at that point he still had a heart!"

"How am I supposed to believe a man like that once had heart?" Natasha yelled at her.

Orthani paused, breathing heavy in frustration. "If you go inside and look on the coffee table, then you'll see a whiskey glass with blood on it. If you look in there, you'll see a barbed arrowhead that was once lodged in my leg." Her voice was gradually getting louder. "The scarf that hangs by my side was given to me by him so he could make sure I wouldn't get my head ripped off by his army. I was lying on the floor, bleeding to death after Coulson thought it was a good idea to yank my feet out from under me when the escape happened, and Loki saw fit to sedate me to stop the pain, had the decency to stop the bleeding, move me to Stark Tower and then spent god knows how long trying to fish the damn thing from my leg before healing the wound. He has heart. It's just been abused since he was able to talk. You really want to punish him like this?"

A smirk curled on Natasha's lips. "He sure as hell deserves it."

"Then do it. Kill me," Orthani spat. Not an ounce of fear was in her veins. "Though know this; If you want to watch him snap, if you want to break the final string and send him into absolute insanity, be my guest. You won't be able to stop him then. I dare you to watch what you've done to him. I dare you to watch his soul break right in front of you as you kill the only person who ever truly bothered to care; watch as his heart shatters into nonexistence, what little he has left. And when you see the last flicker of hope leave his eyes, I hope you feel the same pain and suffering you've caused him and you realize what horrors you've just done," she threatened with a sneer curling across her lips.

"I have no empathy for men like Loki," Natasha said coldly.

"You will when you see that last spark of humanity in him," Orthani retorted softly. "If you don't have a single pang of guilt take over you when you see you've brought a god to his knees, then you are the monster, Natasha. I dare you to watch as his world collapses in front of his eyes."

"That was the plan."

"And how will Barton react to your betrayal?" Orthani said as she raised an eyebrow. "What will he say when he realizes what you've done?"

"He'll get over it," Natasha gave a half shrug. "As will Loki."

"You honestly believe that?" Orthani let out a laugh. "After all the trouble Loki went through to keep me alive up to this point, you think he will forget the heart of someone he deeply cared about?"

"Loki isn't capable of loving, Agent Mynx," she said distastefully. "Everything he says will always be a pack of lies."

"If you honestly believed that, then you wouldn't be here. You're going to break down when you see his reaction to my death, as much as you think you won't."

Natasha snarled. "Do you know who you're talking to?"

Orthani chuckled. "Of course. That's why I said it. Though before you go and kill me execution style, let me say this. This is the exact same scenario Clint was in years ago. He considered your life, did he not? You were completely rogue, yet he found the decency to let you live. Have some compassion. You already know what he would do in this situation; do you honestly believe you should have died that day? Pull that trigger and you condemn your own life. Pull that trigger, and you prove that you should've been killed that day all those years ago! So tell me, Natasha Romanoff!" She brought her voice to a yell. "Shall you die, or do you deserve to live?" she challenged her boldly.

Black. That's all that happened. Just suddenly, nothing. She didn't even hear the gun go off; that's just how quickly her life was ended.

* * *

Natasha watched her body slump to the ground lifeless. She had put a bullet right in the kill zone: dead center, directly in between her eyes just below the line of her brows.

"Even I still think I deserve to die," she muttered, staring at the dead body in front of her. She took a moment to breathe before she grabbed the scarf from Orthani's belt, retrieved the daggers she had thrown to the side to leave Ghost unarmed, and then turned to get Loki's scepter lying on the ground. She secured the two daggers behind her back on her belt, and then secured the scarf behind her back as well.

She saw Tony, the Hulk, Clint, Captain, and Thor all converging on the building from all directions and she knew what was happening. She took Loki's scepter in hand and joined them inside, each one of them surrounding Loki, who was still lying on the ground.

Loki hoisted himself to sit up and then slowly turned around to see the group of angry superheroes. It slowly dawned on him that he actually lost.

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now," he half groaned as he pulled himself out of the imprint he had made on the floor. Barton drew his bow and aimed it directly at Loki's forehead.

"Is that surrender?" Hawkeye said, refusing to lower his weapon until Loki completely surrendered.

"I doubt I have any other choice, do I?" he mouthed off in a mocking tone.

Hawkeye lowered his bow and withdrew the arrow.

"Do not kill him," Thor spoke broadly as the team started shuffling about. "He is to be taken back to Asgard for his justice."

_Where is she?_ The thought was the only thing on Loki's mind at that moment. _Why is she not here? She was with the Hawk last I saw of her, so where has she gone…_ As everyone backed down from their attack stance, he glanced over all of their faces. His eyes snapped to Agent Romanoff's, the look on her face disguising a world of lies and deceit.

"Feeling bitter, Agent Romanoff?" he taunted as Thor approached Loki with a set of Asgardian shackles.

She gave a chuckle without a smile even gracing her lips. "If the shoe fits," she said coldly. "You look anxious. Something wrong?" she asked sharply as if she was trying to lash out at him.

"I'm being forced to accept defeat, Agent. If I wasn't anxious, then you should be worried," he reflected effortlessly as the shackles were snapped around his wrists.

"Will you two stop bickering like an old married couple please?" Tony snarked into the conversation.

Loki chuckled with a grin. "Might I suggest getting a muzzle for the lady if that is the case; she never did learn to hold her tongue," he quipped meanly.

Natasha crossed her arms over her chest, taking the verbal blow and brushing it off like it was nothing. "You remember what you told me earlier? How you were going to have Barton kill me while he was your pet monkey?"

Loki's grin turned dark and menacing. "How on earth could I forget such a magnificent speech, Agent Romanoff," he said coyly as Thor tried to help him to his feet. He shook his head, telling him without words he still needed a minute or two to complete his regeneration of his injuries before he could stand completely again.

Natasha tossed Loki's scepter to the side and walked over to where she was glowering over his still aching body lying partially on the floor. "Well you'll never guess who I ran into," she said, her demeanor portraying this to be a game to her. Such a serious face and unrelenting piercing eyes stared down at Loki. The entire room suddenly grew silent as all watched what was happening.

He chuckled. "Ah, I do apologize for my beloved pet's behavior in whatever it is she's managed to do to you," he said fluidly. He was taunting her, no doubt. "She can get a little…ah, out of hand at times. There is no use threatening me for her misdeeds. We can both handle ourselves on our own."

Natasha smirked. "Oh no. That's not what I meant."

Loki hummed a high pitch laugh at her attempts to weave her way into his mind. It was amusing to him, really, how she thought she could get him to talk to her in any other such way. "Then do tell me what you mean, Agent," he scoffed lightly.

Natasha gave him a dark look. "Let's just say I killed her." She unfolded her arms and reached behind her back to grab a dagger. "Quickly," she said as she tossed the dagger on the floor at Loki's feet. "Intimately," she threw the other one down to join the first one. "And in every way I know you fear." She threw the scarf down last and then crossed her arms over her chest once again. She had used his words against him, yet spun them to her liking. "Next time? Don't go messing with our S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Maybe then you won't get burned."

Loki's heart stopped once the scarf hit the floor.

_The quim is bluffing_ he told himself. He couldn't stop his menacing, mischievous attitude from vanishing all together in that moment.

"Do you think I am but a fool?" he spoke darkly. He wasn't joking anymore. "I will not stand for such childish games, Agent Romanoff-"

"You want to see if I'm playing games? She's up on the roof if you don't believe me."

The room fell into a deadly silence as everyone shifted gazes to each other around the room before landing back on Natasha. Barton was the first to actually move. He looked at Natasha in disbelief, turned his head to make eye contact with Loki for a brief second, and then briskly rushed out the broken glass window out to the balcony and then rushed up the stairs leading to the roof. There wasn't any other expression but alarm written on his face.

The room seemed to stand perfectly still in anticipation. No one wanted to move. The Avengers knew Natasha was more than likely being dead serious about this. It was like they were waiting and watching as a ticking time bomb slowly clicked its way down to zero.

Everyone's eyes turned as they heard Hawkeye's footsteps rushing back down the stairs to the balcony. He put his hands on the frames that once held the windows and simply looked inside, his brows creased together.

"Tasha, how could you?" he said barely above a whisper.

The clock hit zero, and the time bomb erupted.

Loki snarled in anger as he swiftly pulled himself to his feet. Thor jumped into action, thinking that Loki was about to attack her and he ran to hold him back.

"Unhand me, brother!" Loki growled as he fought against Thor's grip.

"You will not hurt her!" Thor roared back at him, turning Loki so that he was facing him.

"I do not have time for foolish children who seek revenge by destroying the innocent among them. Does it look like I plan on wasting my energy on a woman so ignorant and naïve she can hardly contain her destructive nature; with a mind as one dimensional as a line drawn on paper?" he roared back, practically spitting in Thor's face. "Such blatant stupidity isn't even worth looking at, let alone expending energy on it," he swirled around and gave Natasha a look that sent fear running through her veins.

The smirk fell from her lips almost instantly and it was replaced with a look of terror.

"You are pathetic. You cower away from the real threat and instead go to kill the last uncorrupt sliver of his soul. You will always be utterly_ useless_ and without a doubt, beyond incompetent," Loki lashed out verbally, and angry and menacing snarl on his lips. "Next time, play the game fair," he spat in a dangerously low voice as he crowded into her personal space, getting right up in her face. "Next time you seek revenge against me, come and kill me instead of retreating to a coward's call and killing someone else," he growled.

He pulled himself out of Thor's grip and walked towards the balcony, walking straight into Natasha with his shoulder and making her stumble out of his way.

"Loki!" Thor called out as his brother reached the balcony.

"Silence, brother!" Loki hissed dangerously as he turned around swiftly to face him. "If you fear me fleeing from your custody, then do imagine what this would be like if you had your precious Jane lying supposedly dead above you. If Orthani is as you so claim, then I have nothing left to fight for; there is nothing worth risking a worse punishment that would be given if I did so when my only trustworthy companion lies dead before my eyes," he snapped before turning back and walking through the broken window and out onto the balcony.

He swiftly climbed up the stairs, his heart pounding in his chest so much he thought it might burst. The anger had left his face completely and was replaced with a stony emotionless one.

_Let her still live, even if it is almost death. I can bring her back with even the slightest sign of life; by the gods let her be barely so, I beg of you. _

He stepped onto the rooftop where Selvig had set up the Tesseract and froze. His heart stopped. Everything stopped.

"No," he barely managed to exhale, darting to Orthani's side. He fell to his knees and put a hand around her throat in search of a pulse.

Nothing.

"By the gods, give me _something_," he pleaded as he opened one of her eyes to see the lifeless blue orbs staring into nothingness. He brushed the hair away from her eyes to see the bullet hole directly in the center of her forehead, a single trail of now dried blood running from that hole down the bridge of her nose, into the corner of her eye, and then down the side of her cheek.

Every ounce of anger he had drained from his body as the blood drained from his face. He frantically but gently picked her up from the corner she was curled up in, her body completely limp in his arms, and carried her down the stairs and back into the pent house. He brushed past Barton and then ignored the entire team as he carried her to the very same couch she had been lying on before the war had even started and once again fell to his knees beside her.

"Orthani, don't…" he barely whispered desperately as he put a hand on her cheek, his darting eyes studying her face as he moved strands of her hair away from her closed eyes. The chains connecting the shackles together clinked softly, but since it was the only other noise in the room, everyone was able to hear them.

The room had gone into a deadly silence once more. Every eye was on him, watching his every move, his every word, his every look as if it was shocking to them how he was reacting.

"No," he managed to exhale. " Please, no, don't let this be happening," he squeezed his eyes shut and rested his forehead against hers, a look of desperation and hurt taking over his expression. His fingers raked into her chestnut brown locks. "You cannot do this to me; come back to me!" he softly cried out under his breath. "Please…have mercy, don't do this to me…" He opened his eyes and pulled himself away from her to once again study her face. He just stared at her in disbelief like he couldn't come to terms with what was lying in front of him. He brought his other hand up to lift her chin slightly and then he froze as if he was waiting for something to happen. Anything.

Nothing ever did.

Before his eyes even began to water, he buried his face into the crook of his arm and rested it on the seat of the couch right beside her head.

It was like something in the air broke. There was no anger or conflict hanging there as it was before. There was no triumphant aura amongst the Avengers for winning a well fought war; there was no spite or hatred. Only heartache, not only from Loki, but from Clint's silent mourning as well.

Thor had to look away from his brother, the sight of it too much for him. He knew he had lost more than just a friend or an ally. He had lost someone who had stuck with him all the way until the end, regardless of what their morals or standards were. She had fought by his side since he landed on this place the first time, and been there up until the very end. While he didn't blame Natasha for what she did, for he did something similar the moment he saw Orthani when he arrived, but he couldn't help but feel guilty. He had seen the look in her eyes; the turmoil and tribulation raging in her mind at what she should do while she laid helpless in that bed, restrained by her boss. He hadn't seen the same dedication in Loki's eyes, though he had to admit, he was never really able to tell what was going on with his brother through his eyes in the first place. He knew his brother, though. He knew he wouldn't act as he was unless something truly got to him.

He hadn't ever really seen Loki like this before, at least not in a long time; so broken, vulnerable and hurt. He had not yet seen the look in his eyes, but he was sure he'd find a look similar to the one he had the day the bifrost was destroyed and he let him fall into the abyss.

Mjolnir slipped from his grasps and it hit the floor with a loud thunk. No one even so much as flinched at the noise, they all mostly engrossed in the emotion and the scene before their very eyes. A monster, one who had destroyed half of New York with an alien invasion, was mourning over one small human's death? It was outrageous to them, yet humbling and depressing at the same time.

Steve was the first to move from the otherwise frozen crew. He dropped down on one knee, rested the arm his shield was fastened to across his leg and bowed his head as the true soldier he was in a sign of respect. The Hulk, who watched Captain as he knelt, let out a few gruff breaths that were supposed to be whimpers before he let out a loud roar. It had worked with Tony, so he might as well try, right? When it didn't get the same result, he just gruffly exhaled in short spurts as if he was confused and then hung his head as he slowly started to shrink back into Bruce Banner. Natasha brought the gun she had used from its holster and threw it to her left, it sliding across the floor as she stormed out to the balcony, the sun now slowly sinking towards the horizon and casting a bright orange glow on the gathering. She claimed she wouldn't have any sympathy towards this man, but when she had caught sight of the whiskey glass sitting on the coffee table with one of Hawkeye's arrowheads caked in blood at the bottom, she snapped. Maybe she had been telling the truth, Orthani. She pushed past Barton, who was now leaning against the window frame with his back, his arms crossed over his chest, and an emotionless face set on his features while his eyes stared off into the distance.

"Why…?" Loki suddenly brought his head up, revealing the otherwise silent tears glistening underneath his green eyes. "Why must this happen? She has done nothing to deserve this…" he asked rhetorically under his breath, his voice sounding somewhat flustered.

"You killed over a hundred people, Loki," Tony barely spoke up, his eyes looking at the floor. It was a soft reply, but it was loud enough for Loki to hear and cause him to turn his head to look at the Iron Man over his shoulder.

"Then why am I the one who was spared?" he shook his head, taking his eyes away from Tony only when he spoke. "I should be the one lying dead before you if this was punishment, not her…" he turned his gaze back to her. "I understand the idea of paying for your crimes and punishment for one's actions, but killing a, a..a loved one of the criminal in question is hardly a proper punishment," he stuttered, trying to find the words. He looked at Tony once more. "I would much rather be the one dead than to have her-…" he couldn't even finish his own sentence. He closed his eyes as a single drop of water from his eyes ran down his cheek so swiftly that Tony barely even caught sight of it.

That one stray tear he saw was enough to make Tony force himself to look away as he felt one of his own slide down his cheek. The emotions hanging in the air were too much. It was practically choking out any sort of uplifting emotion that could be present and replacing it with the worst feeling of dread and sorrow imaginable, which made the air heavy and hard to breathe.

"Thor. Release me," Loki's voice gave a slight quiver.

"Brother, I-"

"There are magic-binding restraints, am I correct?" Loki swiftly cut him off. "So let me go so I can try and bring her back," he said firmly but quietly and as collectively as he could.

"Loki, it is impossible," Thor said softly, his back now turned to his brother.

"Let. Me. Try," Loki hummed dangerously before looking over his shoulder at Thor. "I cannot leave this realm without trying everything in my power to bring her back. I will not rest easy shall I leave here without attempting to revive her."

"Loki, there are consequences-"

"Of which I can most certainly reverse should something go wrong."

"The council will not see it that way. They will see it as your own selfish impulses. She isn't Asgardian, we cannot just experiment on her. Should her soul become a parasite to yours, it cannot be reversed should you manage to defy all odds. Loki, the risks outweigh the benefits," Thor said, turning around to face his brother once more.

"Thor, if this was Jane, you would be begging, pleading, demanding me to try everything possible regardless of the fact the chances of succeeding are almost none," Loki pointed out, having trouble forming the words on his tongue. "Brother I cannot live…I do not wish to…without trying to breathe life back into her. If I succeed, I shall face the consequences in Asgard with the knowledge I kept the promise I made almost two years ago to this woman. At least it would be worth the suffering and torture. Otherwise, what have I to lose?"

"Since when do promises matter to you?" Thor furrowed his brow. "You have never been one to keep a promise since we were but children. Why does this one matter so greatly that you have to hopelessly attempt to save a life which is already gone?" Thor said, slightly yelling at him.

Loki just stared back at his brother. This time, he didn't yell back as he normally would. "She was the first who actually kept the promises the made with me," he said softly. "Look at what she's done. She managed to fight from both sides of a war until the end, where she was so tragically executed by her own people. She could have avoided her fate had she not kept her word with me. Do not chastise me as if this shouldn't be of great importance to me; you know just as well as I that everyone I talk to manages to go back against words spoken in empty promises. She is different. Therefore, I must treat her as such," he said softly.

Everyone seemed to wait for Thor's decision with bated breath. He looked away from his brother, something gnawing away at his stomach with dread.

"As much as it might seem impossible to believe, I did care for her, and I always shall. I gave her my word I wouldn't let this happened, yet I have so foolishly let my guard down and let her down in the process," Loki said to bring Thor's attention back to him. "I have broken my promise, and a rather important one at that. Must you deny me the chance to redeem myself?"

* * *

Natasha clutched her arms to her chest as she watched the sun slowly set over the horizon of the city. She didn't quite understand; every fiber in her being had told her that Loki was an unstoppable monster, that he had no heart, that he had no capability of caring for anyone but himself. She expected him to remain as stone-faced as he made himself out to be, to keep his poker face regardless of how much this woman might've meant to him, to remain as emotionless as possible; that would have meant victory for her. Not this. Not anymore.

"Agent Romanoff, this is Director Fury, do you copy?"

The voice that suddenly relayed in her ear made her jump and snap from her thoughts. She collected herself before she spoke.

"I copy."

"I need a report, Agent."

She bit her lip, wiped a single lone tear off her cheek and decided to make a stand for a change. "Come and get it yourself," she growled. She snatched the earpiece from her ear and threw it on the ground. She stomped on it with her heel, causing it to break into bits and pieces.

"Tasha," Clint's voice came from behind her. She didn't turn around to face him. She didn't want to. "Will you talk to me? Or are you just going to silently destroy yourself in a corner."

Natasha exhaled. "I screwed up, Clint. I made the wrong call. What else can I say?" she said lowly before heading up the stairs to her left up to the roof.

"You know, it's not that simple, really," Clint followed her up, standing a good few feet away from her.

"Yes it is. Fury told me to kill her; I obliged. I didn't think such a monster had any sense of compassion, nor did I think the two of them were actually telling the truth when they said she was playing both sides. I made the wrong call. What can I say?" she said flatly and without emotion.

"And the fact that I refused to even consider Fury's orders didn't send off an alarm in your mind?" Clint retorted, waving his arm as he spoke.

"I know you and her were like siblings, Clint. It came off to me like it was clouding your judgment, not actually knowing anything that was going on. You weren't there when she just about blew the Stuttgart mission!" she shot over her shoulder. "You shot her, that's just about it, but you weren't there as the entire thing went down. You didn't show up until she was gone. I saw it as you had no idea what was going on, and I did," she said, turning around to face him as a breeze gently rushed by.

Clint didn't say a word. He just gave her a look that could just about break hearts.

"Don't give me that, Clint-"

"Why? I can't be sad for the death of my partner?" he gave a reluctant shrug.

"No, that look like I've just destroyed a country and you're disappointed in me. I was just carrying out orders," she folded her arms across her chest.

"And you had to go and rub it in everyone's face? Why not just let him go back to wherever he came from thinking she's still alive and running around saving the world, not lying dead on the rooftop of Tony Stark's skyscraper," he said somberly.

She bit her lip, not having an answer for him.

"Look, Tasha, I know how you are, but this is way beyond you," he spoke again since she wasn't. "That's something the past you would do, not the current one. At least tell me that he got to you; pissed you off to where you had to seek this one out. Don't tell me you've just acted on old impulses…"

She exhaled and her eyes dropped to the ground below his feet. "Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't. Either way, it's done. We can't fix it."

"And you've just killed one of ours-"

"Do you have to keep throwing it in my face?"

"I'm not talking about S.H.I.E.L.D, Nat," Clint talked over her. "I'm talking about our class. Master Assassins. She might be new to the job, but she was a hell of a fighter. One that we could've used here. We can't just go around killing our own every time someone looks a little shady."

Natasha nodded. "I made a mistake. I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"Well then you'd better start acting like it," Clint finalized, turning back to head down the stairs and down to the penthouse balcony, leaving Natasha to her own up on the roof.

* * *

**A/N: **Uuuuuh...

Haha, no seriously, please don't kill me. IT WILL ALL MAKE SENSE IN TIME, PROMISE. It does make for an amazing plotline in the sequel, I will tell you that much. Just hang in with me here. This shall be EPIC. And don't go and post spoilers in the reviews if you think you know whats gonna happen, just bear with me. x) I'll have another chapter posted a bit later today, and then I'll probably be posting the first chapter of the sequel either tomorrow or the day after.

**Azalia Fox Knightling: **-looks around innocently- Eh hehe. Funny story...

**Guest: **Oh my god, I just about laughed my ass off at that, hoooooly shit. xD "I want to punch her really hard in the tit." Best. Anon. Review. EVER. xD

**Lime Toaster Cat: **I must not read that review right then. xD Or I looked at the wrong chapter or something. Either way.

Fluff gets to your head? Dare I ask why? xD

**TheMagentaColor: **Yes, RIP old laptop. Once I get all my files transfers, I shall throw it off the roof and watch it shatter into a million pieces...

Or wipe the drive and use it as a mass storage device. Whatever works.

**LuluCalliope:** All my reviewers will get shoutouts! The more reviewers I get, the better I am at writing really good chapters, so I must reply to every one because they all mean a lot!

And thank you. I shall definitely keep up the good work. =)

**Captain Cynthia:** Haha, nope, no rainbow sparkles and no puzzle solving. Maybe one puzzle, but other than that, -wait, shit, I can't say that, never mind. x.x-

-The rest of this comment has been edited due to spoilers. Sorreh.-

Though seriously. It's good to know I have someone to call me out if my characters turn Mary Sue. Thank you god.


	26. Chapter 25: Dignity

_This cannot be happening. Why. Why? I just got her back. She was __mine__. The one person I could trust and…love…and she would always return it with so much more than I ever gave her; lost. Gone…_He couldn't breathe anymore. He didn't want to breathe anymore. _If I could have had one decent thing to remain in my life, just one, I would not have become such a monster. Apparently I have become such one that I do not deserve something or someone who could stop me from going any madder than I have become. Can this be any more horrifying? Or tragic…_ He buried his nose into her neck. He hadn't felt this great of pain since he found out he was a Jotun, but hell, even this had a sharpness to it that put it in a different category by itself.

Nothing he had gone through had felt like this. He had been beaten, broken, and battered by the Chitauri; he had gone through the tortures of Thanos himself, and that was nothing like this. At least with those pains, he could easily remove the wounds and heal within a day; but this knife that had lodged itself in his chest wasn't removable.

No amount of magic or sorcery he was able to perform helped. Sure, he had completely healed the bullet wound, and since the bullet had gone all the way through her skull and out the other side, he didn't have to do the same thing he did with the arrowhead. He eventually gave up trying, for he had done everything he could possibly do.

"Forgive me, Orthani, for failing you," he whispered when he managed to pull himself away from her. _I'm so sorry. _He couldn't even bring himself to say it even though his eyes had long since dried. He put a hand on her cheek and ran his thumb over her temple. _It's hard for me to believe that I will miss you more than you will ever be able to fathom, but maybe somewhere out in this universe, your soul believes it as I do. _

He shook his head lightly, forced himself to give a fake but faint smile, and then he leaned over to kiss her forehead one last time. "Sleep well, my love. Sleep well."

He felt Thor grab his arm as he stood up, he going to put the shackles back around his brother's wrist. Loki realized just how pitiful the entire scene must have looked to those still standing around him, so he shook his shoulders slightly and in doing so, shook as much of the mourning still in his mind away. He should have been celebrating! He was being taken back to Asgard! He could so easily plead his case to his father with that silver tongue of his and avoid a terrible punishment if he so wished. He could be reinstated as Prince as if none of this had ever happened and he could go back to causing his usual mischief as he usually did! He, in all aspects in himself, had won.

Yet, her death made him feel as if it was all in vain. What else was left? A jail cell in Asgard for a time being, surely, if not death; or Thanos would search for him in hopes of bringing upon him the worst punishment not even capable of being found in anyone's wildest dreams for failing to bring him the Tesseract. Regardless of if he was killed or not, Thanos would be searching for him. And once he got his hands on the Tesseract…?

He closed his eyes and shivered. He felt like vomiting once that crossed his mind. He didn't even want to think about what would happen if that was brought to pass in the future. Surely there wouldn't be any realm that would evade demolishment if it stood in the wake of Thanos' wrath.

"Loki, that look on your face says you aren't telling us something…" Thor said as he watched his brother's reactions to his own thoughts. His eyes snapped open when Thor spoke.

Loki simply shook his head, not wanting to speak a word about that ever again. "Go on. Put your muzzle over my lips and haul me back to Asgard as your captive," Loki exhaled, looking down at the ground. He closed his eyes, craned his neck, and then once again shook his shoulders as before, literally trying to shake off the heavy emotions still lying on his shoulders.

"Are you alright, brother?" Thor asked sincerely.

"Oh of course I am you sniveling fool!" Loki snapped, snarling at Thor's sincerity. "I am more reclusive than before. I doubt I'll ever fully recover from this; at least let me walk away as if nothing ever happened as to make it seem like I have even an ounce of dignity and self-control left," he dropped some of his anger from his voice. "When we return to Asgard, I will be thrown in a cage. There is no use fighting it. I might as well prepare myself for the torment," he grumbled as Thor secured the shackles to his wrists.

Suddenly, the elevator dinged, and the doors swished open.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" the rambunctious voice of Nick Fury interrupted the somber mood as he walked through the doors and out onto the floor. "Tell me, whose brilliant idea was it to shut off all communication back to us after a nuclear bomb just went off, hm?"

Everyone just glanced around the room awkwardly. Clint came through the broken window to see Nick standing before the team and he dashed back up to get Natasha from where she was still standing on the roof.

"How about instead, you answer my question," Loki said quietly as Clint and Natasha joined the rest of them. All eyes snapped to him. "Who was it who concocted the brilliant plan to saunter off and kill one of your own?"

Nick scoffed, almost surprised this villain had the audacity to call him out. "Oh good, is she dead?" he said as he turned around to see Orthani's lifeless body lying on one of Stark's couches. "Both you and I know she was a rogue. She was helping you, wasn't she?" he mouthed off.

"Yes, and preventing me from proceeding in killing an entire street full of civilians is most certainly defined as being rogue," Loki gave him a hate-filled smirk.

Nick's brow furrowed. "Excuse me?"

"Oh no," Loki put his hands up, signaling his surrender. "I am done talking." His voice came out sounding worse than just hatred alone. Such spite dripped from every word. "I see no reason to speak. However, I shall say this. I blame neither you nor your agency for the unjustly martyr; for you all are blithering whims who cannot see the truth to save their own lives. You and your people wouldn't know any better."

"What did you say?" Nick said dangerously soft.

"Pitiful. Weak. Lack of control. If only I could find a way to muster up the sympathy once you and your company collapsed."

Nick let a sneer slip on his face before it vanished almost as quickly as it came. Loki smiled.

"Come now, brother. Muzzle me like the animal Fury assumes me to be. I have no words left to speak to the wretch."

Nick's fists clenched into tiny balls in anger. How dare he call his company stupid to his face. "Thor, get him out of here. I need to have a talk with the rest of you. And for god's sake, will someone please give Banner some clothes already?" he said as Thor grabbed Loki's arm and led him out to the balcony. "I can't take him seriously with him standing here buck ass nude, lord have mercy," he lost his angry demeanor almost instantly as others started moving around. Tony went to get Bruce something to wear from downstairs while the rest of them all formed a circle around Nick.

* * *

"Alright, now that we're all decent," Fury made a jab towards Bruce, who had just walked into the room wearing fresh clothes. "What the hell just happened here? And don't you all go boo-hooing and crying because I still see valid justification in this woman's death."

"You know, when you see a god burst into tears over a human of all things, it kinda proves the point," Bruce said, fastening the last button and joining the circle in the last gaping spot beside Captain and Natasha.

"Yeah, well he looks more sadistic and insane than he did before. He doesn't look the least bit broken up about this," Nick said, clasping his hands behind his back.

"Well duh, it hurts!" Tony said matter-of-factly while walking out of the circle and over to the other side of the room so that his robots could take apart his busted suit. "Honestly, and I hate to say this but Captain has already heard it so might as well, but Loki's ego is like mine. He wants his fame, he wants his glory, and he wants to be seen as someone without weakness. The more broken up he is, the more snarky, irritated, self-centered and egotistical he's gonna be."

Nick scoffed. "Wow Stark, you just gave the both of you too much credit."

Tony shrugged and rolled his eyes. "It's my best quality-ow!" The robot yanked off the final piece of his armor awkwardly. "Romanoff, was that a through-and-through shot?" he asked as he headed over to the couch and also wiped off the remnants of the few tears that fell from his eyes earlier.

"Yeah," she said, her voice somewhat shaky.

Tony nodded and leaned over the arm of the couch and lifted Orthani's head off the couch cushions. He moved her shoulders so that she was lying on her back and then ran his fingers along the back of her head in search of an exit wound. He couldn't find one.

"Well? What are you doing, and should I be stopping you?" Nick furrowed his brow and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm searching for where the bullet left her skull," Tony said, scrunching his face in an odd way. "Which I can't. Not even a hole in her skull where one should be…bone's intact…"

Nick's brow straightened in surprise. "What are you thinking, Stark?"

Tony remained silent, yet he turned her head from one side to the other in curiosity.

"I'm thinking…" he paused after he exhaled loudly. "That…well, one, I'm thinking that she is not a natural brunette since she has black roots," he pointed out, just thinking out loud. "And second of all, he actually managed to completely heal a bullet track straight through her brain, which means he is a lot more powerful than he's made himself out to be." He set her head back down on the couch and went to rejoin the circle of Avengers.

"If he was really all that powerful, he would've raised her from the dead, let's face it," Bruce said while folding his arms.

Tony just shrugged.

"Ok, then what's the damage report?" Nick exhaled loudly.

Natasha quickly spoke up. "You killed one of your own! What do you think the damage is?"

Nick closed his eyes and took in a breath calmly before he actually spoke. "I couldn't risk her helping him in taking over the world. If you're so upset about this, then why'd you pull the trigger?"

She chewed at her lip nervously. "She told me to put myself in Clint's shoes so many years ago," she muttered. "I know very well in my mind that Clint should've pulled the trigger on me. So that's what I did." She also folded her arms over her chest. "I didn't actually know she and Loki had a thing. I have a feeling he'll be charging out of prison one of these days to get his revenge for this…" she held back a shiver. "He looked really torn when he was trying to bring her back."

The room once again fell into silence.

"Well," Nick said after no one else decided to speak. "I hope I never see what you all just saw, because obviously it's hit you all hard. Some harder than others," he looked around the circle quickly. "However, if you all answer me this one question, it'll decide how I handle the situation. Either she goes out in a body bag, disappears, and we lose every file that pertains to her, or she goes to the morgue with Coulson. So answer me this." He clasped his hands behind his back. "Was she rogue, or was she on our side?"

No one spoke immediately. In fact, it took several minutes before someone actually broke the silence.

"Neither," Tony said, putting his hand to his chin all while zoning out his vision. "She was keeping Loki in line, making sure he didn't go too overboard with the killing sprees. She would only let him go so far before she'd tell him he went over the line. Even though she was right there next to him, she never told him to stop, but she was killing Chitauri left and right just like the rest of us," he pointed out, he still engrossed in his own thoughts.

"That doesn't mean much, Stark-"

"Yes. Yes it does. See, look at the extremes of the two sides here. Kill the Avengers and destroy the world; or kill Loki, betray someone she's become extremely close to, obviously, and from then on look like a shady bitch. Nick, we didn't win this war. She did."

Everyone's eyes turned to Tony, most of them conveying looks saying 'what the fuck have you been smoking.'

"No listen, hear me out here. It sounds crazy unless you know my thought process, ok? Look at the two sides here. Our goals in this war were to get Loki, dead or alive, and while we did sorta accomplish that, most of us want him dead, so that's our failure number one on our behalf. Failure number two, we would've lost this war had it not been for the council sending that nuke. That was a fluke, not planned, therefore failure. I could keep going, but let's look at Loki's side. He wanted to destroy the Earth: failed. He wanted to become king: failed. He wanted to kill every one of us: failed."

"How is this relevant, Stark?" the Captain interrupted his epiphany moment.

"How do you think her objectives were? You didn't talk to the war before this all started. You weren't able to listen in on her and Loki's conversation; I was. I did. So just listen to me for a minute," Tony replied, and he started pacing around the room slowly. "She wanted to keep Loki alive so that he could go back to Asgard, which is where he wanted to be in the first place. She wanted not only to save the world, but to protect the man who was destroying it; why? Because she knows him better than Thor does; everything is justified to her due to the same reason we don't know of and will now never know. She saw something in him that we obviously couldn't; and she realized that he shouldn't have to be killed because no one saw that one thing we all missed. Sure, she let him kill a lot of people, but she was also more than likely trying to prevent him from being any more damaged than he already is. So look around you." He put out his arms and spun in a quick circle. "The whole world is safe. Sure, when it comes to physical battle, we honestly did win this war, but she's the only one who managed to accomplish everything she set out to do."

Everyone exchanged glances, finally understanding his point. Tony walked up the stairs to the stone walkway that led to his Iron Man landing pad outside and stood with his arms folded across his chest.

"She truly lived and died a hero. So if you're honestly going to go to our people at S.H.I.E.L.D and the presses and claim she went rogue and you had no choice but to pick her off like she was standing in a line up, then I will be the first to call you out and let everyone know how much of a liar you are."

It was a standoff between Nick and Tony. The rest of the Avengers just stood behind Fury, not really knowing what to do. Clint was the first to move, he walking up to stand besides Tony.

"What, are we picking sides here?" Nick said sarcastically after watching Clint take Tony's side.

"Well obviously one of us standing up for a fellow teammate isn't enough. So yeah, I guess I am picking a side," he said firmly as he crossed his arms.

The faint smile that once graced Fury's lips vanished. "Be glad I'm even considering your opinions. I can say just what I damn well please. Now will you stop dividing yourselves and get back over here so we can talk to each other like adults, please?" Nick let his arms fall to his side.

The room once again fell into silence. It seemed like an eternity before someone else even so much as twitched.

Suddenly Natasha briskly walked past Fury, heading up the stairs to join both Tony and Clint.

"Agent Romanoff, this is not a wise decision-"

"Nor was shooting a fellow Agent, sir. This wouldn't be the first unwise decision I've made today."

Nick started laughing nervously in disbelief. "This is a joke, right?" he said, looking around him. "You all can't be serious-"

"Does it look like I'm playing to you?" Tony snarked at him.

Nick nervously laughed again. "You know, I'll say whatever you want me to say just to get you all to stop this foolishness," he said while putting his hands up in surrender.

"That isn't the point here," Tony said firmly. "You're treating her death like it's nothing when in all reality, she's as much of a hero as the rest of us here." Tony's eyes were cold and harsh, staring Nick down like he was the enemy, yet his face was emotionless. "She deserves some respect. Give her name at least some dignity."

Bruce Banner suddenly walked past Nick as well, he also going to join Tony, Clint, and Natasha.

"Come on, Bruce. You didn't even know her that well," Nick rolled his eyes, almost shocked that all of his Avengers were suddenly turning on him.

"None of us did," Bruce said, turning around to walk backwards slowly as he spoke. "But the fact that her death just brought that psychopath to his knees-" he pointed out the window to Loki, who was now watching as the situation unfolded, "-and then to have the psycho suddenly disappear before our eyes and make us all feel terrible for one person's wrongdoing? That speaks more volumes to me than knowing her does at this point." He turned back around to walk up the stairs to the group.

Nick rolled his eyes when Steve also went up to join Tony's Rebellion. "Great, the second I get you all to work together and the second thing you do is turn on me."

"Maybe if you see that you're wrong about her like the rest of us have come to realize, then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation."

Everyone's heads turned when Thor stepped through the window frame and stopped, almost like he was asking permission to enter into the conversation. Fury held his hand out like he was telling him to go ahead, and Thor held out his hand for Mjolnir to come to him. He then promptly walked to join Tony as well after looking between the two for a moment.

"Obviously I'm the odd one out here," Fury shook his head.

Suddenly Loki walked through the frame and briskly walked through the room right in between the two sides.

"Loki!" Thor called out as if he was telling a dog to stop its bad behavior.

"Do I look that dim to you?" Loki snarked at him as he kept walking across the room, went past Fury as he headed towards the couch where Orthani's body was still sprawled on.

"Wouldn't that have been an upset if the villain took my side-"

Before Nick could even finish his sentence, Loki was at his side and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up in the air as he had done to Tony earlier.

"I wouldn't choose your side even if you were right!" Loki snarled and then threw Nick across the room, again exactly in the way he had Tony.

Not one Avenger flinched.

Loki turned back and headed for the couch. He didn't hear the rest of the conversation, he was too engrossed at the curiosity before him. He crouched down next to the couch.

_Unless I have gone absolutely blind and mad with insanity, I do not remember her having black locks of hair…_ he thought as he ran his fingers through her hair. He furrowed his brow, confused beyond belief without any such explanation. He put a hand to her neck, his other wrist being yanked along as well from the shackles now constricting him. _No signs of actual life…I have never seen such adverse effects from magic as this before. _He went to open one of her eyes. _Grey. As they should be. Death confirmed by one simple shade. _

"Brother?" Thor called out to Loki, questioning the perplexed look on his face.

"These physical changes her body is going through: It is simply an affect from the magic, I assure you. It will be temporary," Loki answered, quickly retracting his hand and getting to his feet. "With the amount of energy I used for the spells and such, it is expected." It was his only explanation that made even an ounce of sense.

"Come on, Nick!" Tony interrupted the strange altercation. "We can't just sit here and waste time! Make up your mind. What'll it be?"

Nick exhaled and slowly picked himself off the floor. "And what are my choices here?"

"Either you tell everyone she was on our side, that she lived and died a hero of our team; or you watch as your entire company turns on you."

Nick exhaled in defeat. Maybe they were right, for once.

* * *

**A/N: **Second one, as promised! Yeeeah, I thought I was gonna upset a few people with that last one. xP I didn't think I'd get that huge emotional reaction from you guys though, hoooooly crap. I'm sorry if I made you cry. I wasn't trying to ;-;

**Alzu:** Here you go! It sorta doesn't help much, now that I think about it x.x

**anime0angel:** I plan on turning it into something great! It just required a little...side trip...is all. xD

**Guest: **(Since the site apparently decided to derp out, there's like...a ton of these, so I'm just grouping them all together.)

1. I'm sorry D: I didn't mean to make you all cry Dx

2. Oops. Black Widow will have a redemption, I promise!

3. Uuuuh...I don't think so. Necrophilia isn't really how I roll really, haha. Unless that was just a jab at me telling you guys not to spoil stuff in the reviews, then that was absolutely bloody brilliant xD

4. LOVE MARVEL FILMS! I'm sorryyyyyy! Hopefully you'll be able to read this, since you don't have internet a lot. O.o But you'll love what I'm about to do! Promise. Hopefully...

5. I made a DUDE cry? WHAT? Bro, I am so sorry xD Do you need a tissue box or something?

6. Sorry. x) Shhh, don't tell! Let other people catch on.

If I missed one of you guys, I'm sorry. x.x did something funky today, I don't even KNOW o.o

**doctor-takemewithyou: **Muhaha, you shall see. x)

**Jayc Black:** D: Don't kill meeeeeeee ;-;

**TheMagentaColor: **I always update soon ;P Woah, ok, that sounded creepy. o.o

**Centinibron: **I thank you kindly for that. =D -on the inside I'm screaming "Someone said I can write beautifully" and squeeing like a 4 year old but I'm not gonna admit that openly- x)

**enzyyme: **Hopefully you'll still be with me by the time you reach this chapter then. Thank you so much for the comments; That really makes me extremely proud of my work, and makes me want to continue writing for you guys. So hopefully you'll still think this when you work your way through the story to catch up. x)

**LJ-Of-Asgard: **Yeah, poor Loki. xP It gets better for him, though. THAT I can say without a doubt.

**LuluCalliope: **I thought that was an appropriate way to start out the chapter. x) Best line. In. The movie.

**KijoKuroi: **;-; Tissues? -holds out box- I didn't mean to, I swear. x) I'll take that as a complement though! I've accomplished something today x)

**clusterlizard1: **He'll go apeshit eventually. xD And here -hands out tissue box- I guess I kinda owe it to everyone since I just about destroyed everyone's feels. x.x

If it makes you (and hopefully everyone else) feel better, I cried while writing it last week, so payback I guess. xP

And thanks for that tip! I might actually do that! That is, if I don't break the thing while taking the laptop apart xD


	27. Chapter 26: Returning to Asgard

Loki feared when this day would come. It had been a weak since his initial capture and already, he was being shipped back home. S.H.I.E.L.D had created a device for the Tesseract that allowed for travel in between realms so that he and Thor could go home, and today was the day.

During the entire weeks wait, Loki had refused to speak. He didn't answer anyone's questions; he talked to no one. Not even Thor. He saw no reason to. If they wanted answers, they should have to go out in search of them, which to him, wasn't all that difficult and he saw it as being lazy.

So they muzzled him. They threatened to do so if he didn't talk to S.H.I.E.L.D, so they were forced to live up to their end of the bargain. He hated being treated like an animal, but what choice did he have?

As for his thoughts on Orthani and her untimely departure, he had shoved every memory and thought to the far corners of his mind, never to be touched upon again. He didn't want to remember any of them. Every time he did, he would feel such unbearable guilt and heartache that he had resorted to pretending she never existed; though deep in his heart, he never wanted to resort to such shutout against the woman who had got him this far in his adventures. They had taken her body somewhere, he didn't know where to, but almost immediately after Fury had radioed in the call to those in his command of the nature of both Coulson's and Orthani's deaths, she was gone. The moment her body was swept away was the moment he shoved her to the back of his memories.

As Loki walked alongside Thor towards the location they would start their traverse through the galaxy to Asgard, he pulled his arm away from his brother's grasps. The rest of the Avengers team joined alongside them as they arrived, Tony holding the briefcase the Tesseract was nestled in.

This was it. He was returning home, never to return to the realm of Midgard for quite some time, he assumed. When Thor held out the device, he reluctantly took it. He almost didn't want to for a split second, fearing what his father would do to him once he stepped into the gates of Asgard again after such fallout. Thor twisted the handle before Loki even had a chance to let go and trick him. With a flash of blue light, they vanished. They were off, traversing back to Asgard; traversing back home.

Loki squeezed his eyes shut as he and Thor were pulled through the wormhole by the Tesseract. He had to admit, it was a different feeling than he was used to and definitely a bit more uncomfortable. Within seconds, however, it was over. He felt his feet hit land and his stomach gave a violent lurch at the sudden stop.

_Open your eyes, you fool! If father is right in front of you…_ He snapped his eyes open and looked around him. The bridge he had watched Thor destroy what seemed like ages ago sat under his feet; the very bridge he had fallen from. It was like things were picking up right where they left off. He looked to his right to see the city of gold staring right back at him.

"Come, Loki," Thor said quietly, grabbing Loki's arm and leading him towards the giant golden gates.

_I am not a pet, you bumbling dimwit. No need to call me as such and lead me by the arm like one would do to an irresponsible child._

"Father will be expecting you."

_Your. Father._

"I assume he will want you to stand trial for your crimes."

_Must you talk so much?_

He shouldn't have thought that. The all familiar pain in his chest returned with force before quickly receding back into the darkest reaches of his mind.

_By Valhalla, how does she do it? Even in death, she is capable of sneaking up on me._

His thoughts were silenced when the giant gates opened as they were let into the city. Guards immediately rushed to Thor. Loki remained silent as the guards readjusted the shackles so that his hands were now tied behind his back and used a rope to fasten his wrists together securely. They couldn't have him suddenly bolt while they walked him through the city.

By the time the guards had finished tying Loki up like a boar, Thor had already jumped on his horse and galloped off to the palace.

_Ah, not even a personal apprehension. Thor, you haven't changed at all. _

He was forcibly pushed down the streets towards the palace by the two guards Thor had left him with. The closer he got to the palace, the more stares and shocked expressions he received from the people of Asgard. Eventually he got so sick of the disgusted stares that he started returning them with such dangerous glares that whoever he shot them towards immediately hustled back to their business.

Oh yes. The great Prince Loki had returned.

* * *

"Thor!" Sif's voice suddenly cried out as the God of Thunder strolled through the king's court hall. "He's made it back, everyone!" Sif darted from her place to go and hug him, and her warriors three also surrounded him to welcome him back from the dangerous voyage.

"You come with news, son?" a voice broke the reunion of the inseparable group of his best warriors.

Thor nodded to his father and then briskly walked to the bottom of the throne and bowed, placing an arm across his chest.

"Rise up, my boy. You have no reason to approach your father with such nonsense." Odin rose from his throne.

"But you are my king, and so I shall kneel," Thor said respectfully before standing once more. "The threat to Earth has been dealt with. The Tesseract has been placed into our hands, for the humans have agreed that it holds too much power for them to control," he reported to his father.

Odin nodded in approval. "My guards have told me you have brought the criminal here to stand trial?"

Thor nodded. _Has no one told him?_

"Such a trial will not be needed. Not for someone outside of our district realm. They will instead be put to death immediately for seeking such destruction against a defenseless realm," Odin replied, sitting back in his throne.

"Heimdall, have you not told him?" Thor's brow furrowed in confusion as he looked towards the gatekeeper, who was standing to the king's left.

"He has not wished to see the perpetrator revealed for it is of no importance to him, so I have not revealed it to him" Heimdall answered coolly, not even so much as flinching.

The doors to the court hall opened and the two guards that had been leading Loki through the streets approached with Loki being held by both arms. The entire room froze as Loki made his walk towards the throne. All eyes were on him. Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg backed away from his path as if he was afflicted with disease. Everyone was in absolute shock.

Odin watched as his guards brought him closer and he leaned forward in his seat, almost not believing his eyes. "Loki."

His adopted son looked up at him with a dark, menacing look that silenced him instantly. Had the muzzle not been covering his mouth, he would've also seen the devilish smirk as well. He watched in utter silence as the guards shoved him down on both knees and then proceeded to rip the muzzle from his jaw with such force that it caused Loki to let out a grunt when his head was violently snapped to the side.

Loki hung his head briefly before he shrugged his shoulders and rolled his neck around to stretch it. He then looked up to the throne with a faint snarl on his lips.

"Hello father," he spat as if the word left a horrible taint in his mouth. It was a taunt, a jest, made in absolute sarcasm; for he knew it would leave a pang of guilt in Odin's heart.

Odin simply stood up and took hold of his kingly staff, his golden cape rustling behind him. He slowly made his way down to the steps that lead up to his throne. He didn't speak, at least not yet.

"I believe the phrase you would be searching for would be 'off with his head,' I presume," Loki again taunted him.

"You must first stand trial before I pass your judgment, son," Odin spoke quietly.

"That is a lie and every soul in his room knows it," Loki didn't even hesitate to snap at him.

'No matter what you so believe, you are my son!" Odin yelled. "I refuse to put my son to death unless it is absolutely necessary!" His voice echoed throughout the hall as he fell silent once again. "We have mourned your death here once before; to have to do so again would be tragic-"

"Yet not impossible in your eyes."

Odin's head swirled to look at Loki, who was still on his knees. "Are you accusing me of not extending my grief over you? Have I become that much of a monster in your eyes!"

"Your heart is conflicted and conceited. You claim you will give me fair judgment, but once you hear my story and see that which I have done, you will see me as the monster," Loki snarled. "You will see only the horrors I have performed and you will fail to recognize your own faults in the matter."

"Blaming a father for the actions and misdeeds of your own is by no definition an excuse for your actions!" Odin bellowed at the unjust accusation.

Loki just smiled and gave a devilish chuckle. "I have no more to say."

Odin silently growled in frustration. "You must claim either guilt or innocence, son."

"Oh no," Loki shook his head and gave that same devilish grin he had given to Agent Romanoff. "That would make it too easy on you. Where is the fun in that?"

Odin looked down at his son with soft eyes. "What has happened to you, Loki. Why must you resort to such evil?"

Loki laughed. "Being good has no interest at all."

Odin hesitated before reacting. "Lock him in a cell. He does not leave until I decide he should stand before me in trial for his crimes."

The guards quickly latched the muzzle onto his jaw and hauled him roughly off his knees. As he was being fiercely escorted out, Heimdall's powerful voice broke the chaos.

"Thor, the woman?"

Loki's eyes grew wide when he heard what Heimdall spoke and he yanked himself from the guards grasps. He turned around so fast that it startled Sif and her warriors. The guards tried to regain their hold on him, but he let out a low growl in his throat that was so menacing and threatening that they backed away from him.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Odin turned to Heimdall.

"_His_ woman," Heimdall clarified.

Loki's eyes softened briefly before they hardened again in both anger and guilt. Another low growl could be heard through the muzzle as he lunged, but the guards quickly caught him before he made any headway.

Odin chuckled. "Sigyn? The one who killed herself centuries ago after she discovered he had so desperately killed her fiancé and hasn't been seen since? Was she reborn again, finally?" Odin shook his head in amusement.

Loki smirked through the muzzle. _Ah, must be one of my past life's prouder moments. That does sound like something I would do._

"The ghost."

That smirk quickly fell.

"The human; what has become of her?" Heimdall already knew, but his perspective was clouded by what was to come, so he had to be sure.

"She is dead," Thor said solemnly. "I foolishly accused her of betrayal when it was not. I got her killed. And I am not proud of it."

"Give it time." Heimdall said before Thor could continue talking.

_Who allowed this blithering ape to speak?_ Loki thought to himself as the guards began hauling him off to his new chambers.

* * *

"What will we do with her, sir?" Clint asked Director Fury as they walked into the morgue. Fury was there to finally sign the papers that would release the body of Orthani Mynx over to the same funeral home he had sent Coulson's.

"We have a double funeral," Nick sighed, grabbing the clipboard sitting on top of a zipped up body bag. "We have two of our finest agents put into the ground. What else is there to do?" He quickly signed his name and put the clipboard back. "Say goodbye to her if while you can, Agent Barton. I know you two were close before this all went down. I know Loki probably didn't let any of you Avengers near her on the scene, so go ahead," Nick told him as he walked towards the door.

Clint nodded and waited until he heard the door shut. He looked over his shoulder to make sure he was actually gone before he took in a breath and pulled the zipper of the body bag down.

_Leave it to Nick Fury to already have his fallen agents dressed for a funeral before they even leave the morgue,_ he couldn't help but smirk. She was already in a lilac colored silk halter dress since the medical examiner and mortician had already done the pre-funeral prep. All the funeral home had to do was had to do was put them in a casket, which was all Nick would ever allow them to do.

Clint furrowed his brow, however, when he realized her hair was still discolored from Loki's magic. In fact, instead of being a light, dusty black as it was on scene, it was now darker, almost to a midnight black by now. Her skin was also gaining color to it instead of losing it.

_Loki and Thor left a week ago. She's been gone for about two. I've never seen a dead body two weeks old, but I'm sure it isn't supposed to be like __this_he thought. _She actually looks…better…than she did three days ago._

He reached up and opened one of her eyes as Loki did when they were up in Stark Tower. His brow furrowed when he saw the pigment of her irises. He was sure Loki had said they were grey back then, but at this point, they were dusted green.

_Okaaaaaaay, I'm just gonna walk away before I get any more creeped out than I already am, _he thought as he zipped the bag back up and slowly walked out of the room. _Loki and his freaky magic. That can do some weird shit, man. _

_Oh, and that dress? Totally not your style, Ghost. Totally not your style._

* * *

"Brother, why must you always be so stubborn?" Thor shook his head as a guard let him into Loki's cell and locked the door behind him. Loki looked up at him with an aggravated look as his brother sat down across from him in the dark and dreary cage he was being held in. His muzzle was still firmly attached to his jaw, but his hands had once again been shackled in front of him instead of being pinned behind his back.

After a moment's thought, Thor reached out and unhooked the muzzle from Loki's jaw carefully as to not hurt him or cause any discomfort as the guards had when they forcibly brought him before his father.

"I do not wish to speak to you, brother," Loki said harshly once the muzzle was removed. "I refuse to give father anything. Conversing with me so that Heimdall can relay every word I speak to father will be my downfall."

Thor chuckled lightly and shook his head. "Do you not care for the status of your life? Your downfall started when you refused to plead your case."

"I do not wish to plead my case," Loki retorted quickly.

"Then you shall die."

"I am dead no matter what I so choose to act upon," Loki hissed quietly, yet with some alarm to his voice.

"If you plead to father, he will simply sentence you a handful of months in prison!" Thor exclaimed quietly. "You will not end up dead here."

"You know as well as I that I do not fare well in cages, kept in captivity for those to torture," he smirked, which then soon fell to a sneer. "My fate lies far beyond this," he scoffed before continuing on. "You and your petty crime fighters have yet to bother searching into the logistics of the past war, and they are utterly pathetic and otherwise stupid for not yet doing so." He was rambling at this point, and he rolled his eyes and rested his back against the wall. "I am no longer their biggest threat. They are blind to not yet see so."

"They are in mourning, Loki! Do not patronize them for that," Thor snapped, still keeping his voice low to avoid being overheard.

"They are responsible for their own actions," Loki grumbled, ignoring the pang in his chest before it even flared.

"You killed the Son of Coul. That was not of their actions."

Loki growled and turned away from his brother.

"You do not have to suffer here," Thor told him.

"I do not wish to suffer out there either."

"What makes you think you will?"

"Why else would I have fallen through the bifrost? Because it seemed like a brilliant plan at the time?" Loki retorted sarcastically.

"Brother-"

"No. If I am not to be considered your equal, then so let fate decide what is left of me. I shall only be reborn once the new century is nigh," he snarled with distain. In the dim light, his eyes almost looked black.

"Please don't do this to us, Loki," Thor pleaded. "You and I grew up together. You might have been different, but you are still my brother. I do not wish to see you killed when it could have easily been prevented."

Loki sneered. "So then you and mother will once again mourn my death while the rest of the realm celebrates the defeat of a monster?" Loki watched as Thor's brow furrowed. He let a smirk curl on his lips. "Has your lady warrior not told you of her visit down here?" he taunted.

"Lady Sif was out of line and wants you dead before you try and reclaim the throne of Asgard by force," Thor said with a concerned expression.

"Then in my behalf, do tell her she will get what her heart so toxically desires," Loki spat like venom dripping with pure hatred and disgust were laced through his words.

Thor pressed his lips into a thin line. "What would your Mynx-

"Do not bring her into this!"

"-say to this?"

Loki talked over him the second he heard her name spoken.

"I will do as I see fit. Now answer my question," Thor said firmly.

Loki hesitated. "She is dead. She has, nor will she ever have a say in this."

"If she hadn't died, Loki!" Thor raised his voice ever so slightly. "Does your heart honestly say to you she would wish to see you die because of this foolishness?"

Loki gritted his teeth. "If you are using her as leverage into my emotional being, you have made a critical error, _brother._"

"I am not using her for anything. She would wish to see you fight and live, which is why I beg you to do so."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Your lies to get me to see your reason are weak and pathetic, as you are."

Thor swiftly grabbed him by the throat and he held him against the wall of the cell. Loki smiled and chuckled at his brother's rage.

"I could save you, Loki."

"You should have done so when you so foolishly destroyed the bridge," Loki replied smoothly. Thor roughly released him.

"Why must you do this? To your own brother?" he said sadly.

Loki chuckled again. "Oh no. You are no longer of any value to me. Such a statement has as little sentiment as Sif's had," he snarled back.

Thor's growl turned into a fierce roar of frustration as he suddenly pounded on the cell door with his fist, indicating to the guards to let him out. Loki watched with a grin on his face. For so long, Thor's words he had spoken so carelessly used to break him. The fact he had just turned the tables was a victory to him.

He craned his neck, he now free from the confining muzzle that Thor had left on the ground at his feet. Time would only tell if he would be delivered into the hands of death, or worse, Thanos. While none was better than the other, to Loki, being in an eternal sleep until his next rebirth was far better than being trapped in eternal darkness and malicious pain and suffering.

* * *

Three weeks after Orthani's death, Tony Stark walked into his still destroyed penthouse where the lovely Pepper Potts was waiting for him. He had just flown back from the jointed funeral of Orthani and Phil, put together by Nick Fury. It was time for him to rebuild his now destroyed tower.

"Oh great, you're back. I was just about to start without you," Pepper said, leaning over the giant touch screen computer tablet on a table just in front of the broken windows.

"And I would've trashed all of it anyways," Tony said, removing his black tuxedo jacket and throwing it on the couch.

"And I would've put it all right back in," Pepper joked with him as he came up behind her to see what she was working on.

"Just as long as you keep the Loki-print in the floor, I'll be ok with that," he said affirmatively.

Pepper furrowed her brow and turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Dare I ask why?"

"Party trick. Listen," he skirted the question. "I'm gonna go get us some champagne and change. I look like I just came from a funeral." He started heading for his bedroom.

"You did just come from a funeral…"

"Exactly."

Pepper rolled her eyes at his antics as he walked back to go change. She kept playing with the floor designs on the screen until she heard Tony call for her.

"Pepper, where's my jacket?"

She rolled her eyes again. "Probably where you threw it, which would likely be on the…" She had turned around to face the door to look for where he had thrown his jacket, but froze when her eyes landed on the couch. She made a dash for his bedroom. "Tonyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

* * *

**A/N: **I'll have the other one up later today as always. =)

**nikkica3: **Aww, I'm sorry x.x

**Cat-Natty: **;-; I'm sorry. Don't cry! It get's better. I swear.

**The End That Wasn't: **That's actually a good theory. I haven't thought about that; that could make for an interesting spin off though...

And hold that thought. ;P You'll find out shortly.

**SilverTongueLoki: **I actually didn't think about the fact she started looking like Loki. xD I didn't mean to do that, but now that I look at it, she does sorta have that Loki look going on about her. O.o

**WulfLuvr22: **There will be this chapter, and then one more after this one. And yes. There is a sequel being written. =)

**Jayc Black: **You'll see! Just trust me! It's a brilliant plan, just hold up. x)

**Captain Cynthia: **Hehe, see well...x)

**Guest: (Same thing as before. is being stupid with the unsigned reviews, I don't even know.)**

'LL FIND OUT NEXT CHAPTER YO! I PROMISE.

2. It was still funny as hell, I'll give you that. xD

3. Uuuuh, she did just then x)

4. Is it sad that the first thing that came to my mind was "Get this goddamn person off my goddamn dick!" Snakes on a plane? Get it? Aaaaah, that wasn't funny. xD

5. -Le gasp- PicklePickle17? Or did I get that wrong...O.o

6. Hey dude, that can be a good thing. Rock on. (I would do the rock symbol, but I have a feeling FF will just mess it up and make half of it only appear, so insert rock symbol here.)

7. Nope, the one I post later will be the last chapter. Tomorrow comes the sequel. =)

**socially munted: **O.O Don't kill me...

**KiraMizuka: **D: Gaaaaah, I'm sorry. x.x

**xXxDragonxPhoenixXx: **Hang in there, shit's about to get real. I promise. x)


	28. Chapter 27: The Harbinger Rises

Pepper ran right into Tony as she bolted for his room.

"Geez, Pepper! I'm right here!" Tony said, giving her a strange look at her sudden outburst.

"Did you let anyone else in?" she asked in alarm.

Tony gave her a wild, confused look. "Uh, no," he chuckled, brushing past her. "What would I do, bring back a smhhhhhng-" the word got caught in the back of his throat when he walked into the open where Pepper had once been standing before she went running. He made a string of incoherent noises in the back of his throat before he pulled himself together. "J-Jarvis? Call Nick Fury. Now," he said, his voice somewhat strained.

"How the hell did she get in here?" Pepper exclaimed as tony went to his bedroom to dig something out of his drawer.

"Uh, not important!" Tony exclaimed back as he pulled a small pen light from the confines.

"Well then what is important?" she screeched at him.

"Uh, probably who is she! Yeah, that's a good one!" he snarked, slightly panicked. He nudged Pepper gently to the side as he walked back out into the living room of his trashed pent house. He leaned over the couch and studied the woman lying on top of his coat; she wasn't moving, her eyes were closed, and to him she didn't look like she was dead, certainly.

_Why does that look like the same body that Nick put in the ground four hours ago? She has the same weird ass gold, black and green dress too…_

"Uh, excuse me!" he said comically, yet he was absolutely serious. "Could you please explain to me how the fuck you got in here without Jarvis noticing, please?" He waited for an answer, which he knew he would never get at the time.

"Excuse me!" he said louder. He honestly thought this was one of Loki's stupid stunts. With midnight black hair like this chick had, Loki was the only person he could think of that would be able to pull something like this off. He grabbed the woman's nose and held it shut, cutting off any air that might've been flowing into her lungs. "If you are not dead, I would like an explana-"

He just about jumped out of his skin when the woman's eyes flew open, and he ended up looking like a cat springing up in the air on point. He ended up scrambling backwards away from her.

"Tony Stark!" she explained with a fluid English accent. "What the hell are you doing?" she sat up on the couch, her brilliant glowing green eyes staring him down. "What, trying to suffocate me, eh? Did Romanoff send you to finish me off?"

_Oh my god, British accent; my brain can't handle it. _Tony couldn't believe what was sitting in front of him.

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" he asked wildly, so completely lost at what was going on.

She furrowed her brow. "What?"

"Look, I'm probably more confused than you are," he scoffed in confusion. "You look like an agent of ours except photo shopped to absolute perfection. So name? Please?"

She looked around, her jade green eyes darting around to gather in her surroundings. "Orthani? Stark, you know me…" her brow creased as she swung her legs over the edge of the couch

"No. No-nope. No. We put Orthani in the ground 4 hours ago. So tell me who you really are," he shook his head frantically.

"Stark, it's me," she nodded.

"Prove it."

"You remember the first thing I said to you that made you like me? What was it, uh, 'I'd have a dagger to your throat so quick you wouldn't know whether to shit or read the paper-'"

"Sonofabitch," she stared at her with a blank expression.

"Sir, Director Fury didn't answer your call," Jarvis interrupted.

"Nnnnnnnnnope, call him again. Tell him we have a situation, because apparently I'm staring at a girl we buried not too long ago and it's freaking me the hell out," he said as he scuffled to his feet. "And no, I'm not drunk this time."

"Tony, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Orthani has been dead for three weeks," he said as he approached her and lifted her chin up to flash the little pen light in her eyes. "She took a bullet to the brains. Right. Here." He put his finger right in between her eyes. "Loki couldn't even bring her back, and apparently he's the most powerful sorcerer on Asga-wait. I shouldn't say that. You're just an imposter trying to get information!" He clasped his hand over his mouth before going back to flashing the light in her eyes.

Her bright green eyes opened wide as she gasped. "Loki! Is he ok-Will you stop that?" she swatted his hand away. "What are you doing that for?" She flinched away from the bright light being flashed in her eyes.

"No idea. I've seen medical examiners do it on cop shows. I thought it was relevant," he shrugged, still sort of panicked.

She growled and slapped his other hand away. "Where is Loki? Is he ok?" She stood up and looked from Pepper to Tony. "Do not tell me you've killed him, have you?" she said in a somewhat alarmed voice. "What happened to the Tesseract? And the Chitauri? The last thing I remember was the Hulk throwing Loki through a window. The rest is black; so will someone please explain to me what's going on?"

Tony stared at her for a moment with a blank expression. "So it really is you?" he said quietly, looking at her in disbelief.

She nodded and softened her expression. "I don't know what difference you see in me, but I swear to you I am the same woman who had an arrow lodged in her thigh the day you met me."

Tony looked into her eyes and nodded. "Pepper, will you go get her something to drink?" he asked politely.

"Why? What's going on?" Pepper asked, still confused and shocked at what was going on.

"We've got to catch her up to date on what's happened," he said, sitting Orthani down on the couch.

"Wait, so how do you know she is who she says she is?" she asked, giving him a worried look.

"After seeing Loki's reaction to her lying dead on this very couch, and then seeing the look of fear cross her face when I said his name, it's obvious," he told her with confidence. "I don't know how or why she's here; I don't know how she's alive, and I don't know what's caused her…body to become…more flawless than a Victoria's Secret model-"

"Tony." Pepper said his name in a dangerous tone.

"What? She's no longer a stick! Look, she's got meat on her bones. She _looks_ different," Tony defended his statement, holding out his arms like he was showcasing her. "My point is here is that whatever Loki did to her, it worked, but since it's done more than just bringing her back from the dead, I'm pretty sure that means we haven't seen the last of this war just yet."

* * *

"Thor, it's about time you showed up," Nick Fury said as the demigod materialized on the flight deck of S.H.I.E.L.D's aircraft base. He had brought with him a friend this time.

"Director, this is Asgard's keeper and seer, Heimdall," Thor turned to Nick. "Once I received the call, he immediately came to me claiming you will be needing him."

Nick raised his brow at the man who seemed to be in a hypnotized state. "What will he do, exactly?" he asked.

"You will see in due time," Heimdall answered, staring straight ahead and not making eye contact.

"Alright then," Nick drug out his words. "You aren't going to believe this," he said as he turned his attention back to Thor.

Thor chuckled. "I have seen many things in my life, Director. I doubt you could bring me something that would surprise me." He gave Fury an apathetic look.

"Loki managed to bring Orthani back from the dead. I doubt that's something you see every day," Nick said with a serious face.

Thor's grin dropped and a shock expression landed on his face. "That is impossible. Our king, my father, Odin, is the only one with granted permission from our gods and guardians to raise a soul, especially that of a mortal," Thor explained hurriedly. "If she did manage to evade the gods eyes, the amount of pain she would be in would have her killed instantly."

Nick nodded and he led the two Asgardians below deck. "Her body has changed physically," he started ranting off. "We've been running tests on her and the results are more than just strange. We did a DNA test to check and see if it was really her, and it was as close to a hundred percent you can get these days. However, she has some added into her genetic code: something we've never seen before. We've also dug up her casket and her body was reduced to ash when we opened it. We know it's her, we just don't know what the hell happened."

"Your god of mischief has done more to her than just raising her from the afterlife," Heimdall said out of the blue.

Both Nick and Thor stopped walking to turn and look at him, their eyes looking at him in confusion.

"Heimdall, what are you saying?" Thor asked firmly.

"She has become one of ours," he answered.

Both Nick and Thor gave him an odd look.

"There are wars to be fought in the future; wars that she must be a part of. The gods have not overlooked her, they are using her to carry out a prophecy or else the universe shall have an uncertain fate. This was no mistake."

Nick gave him a hard look. "And what else do you know that you aren't telling us?"

Heimdall's eyes darted to him. "The information you seek that has been granted upon my knowledge is not for your ears. It shall be revealed to you when your mistress returns with us to Asgard-"

"She cannot return with us!" Thor interrupted. "She is human! Born of Midgard! Our law clearly states-"

"She is no longer of Midgard, Odinson."

The simple statement was enough to get Thor to quiet immediately.

"Take me to the child."

Nick hesitated before giving in. He led them to a chamber they had her locked in. It was almost like the Hulk's, except it was square and wouldn't fall through the floor.

"Why do you have her locked away?" Thor asked as they walked into the room.

Nick sighed. "She's got this…thing…Every once in a while, she just snaps and turns into an absolute nightmare. I swear to you, she can scare the living shit out of you once you turn off the lights," Nick shook his head while remembering the first night she hadn't been caged, which was close to a month ago. The amount of blood in the place was like a slaughterhouse before they broke that spell.

"Thor?" Orthani's tongue flicked in her strange new accent, which caused Thor to furrow his brow as the door to the cage slid shut behind him.

"Your voice has changed," he pointed out.

"I haven't noticed," she answered flatly. "Will someone please tell me what's happening?"

Thor looked her over. She had been given back her old uniform, except this time she filled it out so much better than before. She had gone from being tiny, barely anything on her bones at all from the way she used to work to being thick where she needed to be yet trim where a woman should be. Her thighs were almost purely muscle, Thor could tell; and her arms had accents that proved her strength. She wasn't overly built; it was simply enough for people to get the hint she was not to be messed with.

Her skin had become flawless; there wasn't a single blemish, discoloration, malformation or abnormal markings anywhere and her face was perfectly symmetrical. She had been given high cheekbones, her slightly crooked nose had become straight, and she had a pronounced feminine jawline. Her skin was sun kissed and her hair was midnight black and almost perfectly straight until the last two inches, which swept into large curls just past the ends of her shoulder blades. The top half was pulled back, only leaving her side-swept bangs to hang over her face.

"You are definitely not Midgardian," he said, staring at her aura and not quite believing this was actually Orthani standing in front of him.

"Excuse me?" she arched her brow.

"You have been restructured strangely similar to that of Asgardians," Thor walked around her, studying her intently. "Loki has successfully…turned you into a superhuman without any consequences or adverse effects…" he said in a state of disbelief.

"It was not his intention, nor was he attempting to do so," Heimdall spoke up. "The nature of his spells and sorcery required such an extensive amount of energy, and that created a perfect mixture that fused within her blood to start the process. It allowed her body to be morphed, copied, and then resurrected in a superhuman form after her human body went under these changes."

Orthani stared at him blankly. "Are you saying Loki _changed_ my _race_?" she emphasized sharply.

"With the help and approval of our overseers, yes," Heimdall didn't hesitate to answer. "But is has also done more than that."

"Oh, of course," she huffed, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"Her soul has not become a parasite, living off of Loki's, has it?" Thor spoke out. "I may not be educated in the arts of sorcery, but it seems like this is an obvious situation. She has either become a parasite, living off another living soul, or she has become her own being by assimilation, correct?" he spoke his thoughts out loud.

"It is the latter."

"Assimilation. She was given a copy of every one of Loki's strengths?"

"No."

"Heimdall." Thor's voice was powerful and stern. "Give me a straight answer."

The room fell silent again before Heimdall spoke. "Her issue with these people before they had her locked in this cell indicates to me that she is her own being. While she does have an aura of potential for the art of sorcery, that is pure coincidence. She has been raised to the stature of Loki's equal. She has been granted powers of her own, for she has been watched by our overseers and she has proven herself worthy of the duties that now lie on her shoulders-"

"What?"

"She will be of Darkness. That is what took over her the first night she was here: practically invisible to the eye amongst even the slightest shadow should you so will it to be; her footsteps in stealth will be inaudible for even the ears of the non-humans; her talents with small blades make her a silent assassin, the Harbinger of Death. When in this state of Darkness, she is unstoppable, merciless, can kill without being seen or heard in the vilest ways possible. She is a daughter of Darkness. Goddess. Of Darkness."

The room fell silent again.

"Are you sure, Heimdall?" Thor said quietly.

"Her eyes glow as mine do. These are signs of such godlike powers that have been blessed upon those not born of them," Heimdall affirmed, staring directly into Orthani's eyes and gazing at everything that had been put upon her.

"Are you telling me that Loki," Orthani paused as Thor's attention turned to her, "put forth so much energy, effort, and sorcery to attempt to revive me that it gave my soul the opportunity to repair itself as a god…ess…" She furrowed her brow, utterly confused.

"Correct."

"What? You're not serious, are you?" Orthani said in denial. "Me. A goddess? I'm sorry, have you met me? I am by no means material to consider being worthy of any title amongst your people! All I do is stab people with a dagger; I am by no means a-a..a Harbinger of Death or a…Goddess of Darkness or whatever you just called me," she stuttered as she started to pace along the floor.

"Of course you are. With the help of a few spells and the watchful eyes of our fathers and forefathers, you have been appointed powers and responsibilities that follow-"

"I do not want this power!" Orthani interrupted, raising her voice to silence Heimdall. "I do not want this…form! I never wanted these responsibilities! I have not done anything to deserve them!"

"You made a promise to a god," Heimdall said coolly. "And your life was martyred in order to keep that promise."

Orthani opened her mouth to speak but then immediately shut it again.

"Regardless of how corrupt that god was, you kept your promise to him. This is what deemed you worthy of such powers to be granted to you. I believe in any religion, it goes to say that those who give their loyalty to a god, then they shall be lifted up into greatness? Correct?"

Her eyes were darting around the room in panic. "I-I can't…I don't want this! I never wanted this," her eyes were starting to water. "Why? Why is it so prudent for me to answer this calling?"

"I cannot look into the future, so I cannot tell you. The only reason I know you were to arrive was due to revelation by our forefathers; one unspoken, but made the day Loki landed on Earth. I could not tell you their plans, nor should they have to answer to us."

"So I have to blindly walk into this without any knowledge of what to expect or…anything?"

Heimdall nodded. "You will have our guidance, and you will have the heart and companionship of Loki, should you so wish as long as you manage to save him."

"Save. Him. What the hell is going on; why would I have to save him?" she exclaimed suddenly.

Thor paused before speaking. "Our father, king of Asgard, has sentenced him to exile by execution," Thor said solemnly. "I told him to wait for my return before executing him, and that it would only be fair for his brother to be present. The moment I return, Loki will be taken from his cell."

Orthani's eyes widened in horror. "Was he not able to fight for his life?"

"He chose to remain silent and let Odin decide his judgment on his own. He is asking for death."

She snapped her gaping mouth shut.

"I believe you are capable of convincing him otherwise," Heimdall interrupted the conversation.

"No one is capable of changing his mind once he has made a decision. If he wishes to die, then he will seek death," she snapped. "I cannot stop him. If Thor could not talk him out of it, then I surely cannot."

Thor furrowed his brow and took a step towards her. "Had you seen how he was when your corpse was lying before his eyes, you would not be saying that!" he said firmly. "The Hulk was brought to tears. Not Bruce Banner; Hulk. He will listen to you."

"He won't. He has chosen his fate. I cannot change that."

"You must at least try."

"And have him die knowing he left me to fend on my own against you animals? Are you wishing he would die in torture-"

"He is in pain from your death, whether or not he truly shows!" Thor suddenly snapped. "I would rather him die in triumph than die a failure!"

She and Thor had a stare-off with each other. "You must do this. For him," Thor softly pleaded. "Loki is too prideful to withdraw his actions. I personally believe he does not deserve to die over this."

She shook her head slowly. "I cannot save him."

"Then try to. Do not give up on him without some sort of attempt," Thor again pleaded barely above a whisper. "Go with us. Let him see your face. Let him see what he has given you."

"He has made me into the thing he hates. Your people have driven him over the edge. He will not revel in the success of bringing me back. He will hate himself for turning me into the very thing that drove him mad," she spoke quietly.

"If that is so, then what can we do?" Thor shuffled. "We cannot make him accept it by force. That does not mean we cannot try and bring to him reason."

"Thor, I-"

"He is my brother, Orthani. I cannot give in so easily without trying to save him…"

_God, why must it always lead back to him?_ She thought to herself.

"Your heart is tied to his, is it not?" Heimdall interrupted her thoughts.

"How dare you make such an accusation," she snapped at him even though she knew it was true. She didn't want it to be. Not after all this. It was causing her too much heartache and stress.

"Is. It. Not." Heimdall asked her again.

She didn't answer.

"You believe his punishment of death should be receded to a lower offense, do you not?"

"Of course."

"You care for the state of his life?"

"Of course I do."

"Then why are you so adamant at standing by and watching the life leave his eyes?"

She closed her eyes and pressed her lips together.

_Dammit, Loki. Why must you go and make things difficult for everyone._

"How will we do this, then?" she sighed, giving in to the pressure.

"You are Harbinger," Heimdall answered her. "You are death in silent form, a master of darkness. Your name should be feared, not looked upon lightly."

"She is not to commit treason the moment she enters Asgard, Heimdall!" Thor said dangerously.

"That which is done in elegance, grace, and finesse is not to be considered treason," Heimdall spoke. "It is about sending the proper message in order to secure her proper place in the House of Odin."

**To Be Continued in the Sequel "Nightmare"**

* * *

**A/N: **Final chapter is here! I hope you guys have enjoyed the first installment of this story, and hopefully you'll enjoy what I have planned!

See, I couldn't kill off the main character. x) I just had to give her a reason to run off to Asgard. I didn't expect such an uproar over that but HOPEFULLY YOU ALL ARE HAPPY NOW. =)

**Azalia Fox Knightling:** Haha, nope, not lady Loki. That would be strange. O.o

**enzyyme:** I'm sorreh x.x Yes! Nice to see you got through it all x)

**Mrs Holmes-watson:** Thank you! I'm glad you like it. x)

**Imaginemeruler: **Welcome aboard! Hope you've liked it so far. x)

**Jayc Black: **Aw, thank you. =) Just a little taste of what is to come, really, since this sequel will be completely my own and not following awkward guidelines of a movie.

**SilverTongueLoki: **I picked green because I needed to make that physical change obvious. She's had blue eyes the entire story, and I couldn't give her the same color as Heimdall's, so I just went with green. But I might use that whole 'she looks similar to Loki' thing, now that you've pointed it out. O.o

And nooo don't kill me D:

**The End That Wasn't: **I don't know what the name will be. Dx I'm having mixed feelings with what I've come up with so far, but it'll be something kinda dark. I know that much.

**LuluCalliope: **Yes there will be! And thank you!

**kellemarine: **I can't answer a few of them due to the story line I've picked cause it'll give it all away, and since this is a totally new plotline that isn't covered by the movies or the comics. BUT I can tell you, you were right about the Orthani thing. x) And you'll find out about Odin's decision real quick in the first chapter of the sequel.

**Captain Cynthia: ** =D I don't mean to torture you with this, sorry x)


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